Her
by xhesaidshesaidx
Summary: She caught her attention on her very first day of school.She was new and not very religious,while-she-was popular and Mormon.There was just something about Gabriella that made her stand out above everyone else,but Sharpay couldn't exactly pinpoint what.AU
1. Prologue

I know, **I KNOW**, _I know_. I need to update my other stories. But I had this idea for a Gabpay story...and I really wanted to write it. I'm not sure how long it'll be, hopefully not too long. Anyway, I've never written a slash story before...and I don't really support slash that much. But this really just came to me...and I wanted to step out of my 'Troypay only' shell for once HAHA. ;P

**Title: **Her.  
**Summary: **She caught her attention on her very first day of school. She was new and not very religious, while -she- was popular and Mormon. There was just something about Gabriella Montez that made her stand out above everyone else, but Sharpay Evans couldn't pinpoint exactly what. She didn't know her, but she was still so drawn to her. Sharpay had always liked guys...up until now. AU Gabriella/Sharpay.

**Rating: **T.

* * *

**Her.**

_Prologue; "Pink"_

"Do you like pink?"

It was the first thing she ever said to her.

Her voice was so soft and sweet when she'd said it, and the beautiful polite smile on her gorgeous face just melted her heart even more.

_Her_.

How could she put this? _That girl _had so many wonderous things about her...her hair...her smile...her laugh...her voice...What was she? _Who_ was she? Who was this girl, whose life she'd just practically walked right into?

She wanted to know her...just...know her. Know everything about her.

_Her._

She was....perfect.

Everything about her. It was amazing how you could know so little about a person, while you ached desperatley to learn more.

_Her_.

So,maybe it sounded stalkerish. Maybe it sounded obsessive, even. But she wasn't a stalker. She was just a curious girl who'd found her new....study interest.

_Her_.

"Do you like pink?"

Out of all the things you could say to a person when you first met them. That right there, just proved that she was special.

_Her_.

No introduction...no, "Hi, I'm Gabriella", (even though she already _knew _her name- she'd learned it on her first day there.) just; "Do you like pink?"

and what had her answer been?

A chuckle, a playful; "Yeah, was it really that obvious?", and a nervous smile.

her voice shook as she answered the other girl's question.

_She _simply smiled in answer to Sharpay's own question.

"What kind of a question is that?" her african american friend had asked her. Gabriella had blinked blankly at her friend and in an innocent, pure voice, asked "What? Her bag is pink, her shoes are pink, her necklace is pink, and her top is pink. I was just trying to be nice."

Sharpay had walked away from the scene by now, not knowing what else to say, even though she desperatley wanted to stick around and chat it up with the beautiful brunette. But she could see that she was already caught up in another conversation already with her friend.

Sharpay smiled. Finally. She'd finally spoken to her...after a week of being at the school, (it was the middle of the year) and not even so much as a passing glance in her direction from _that girl_, she'd finally said four words to her. And not only that, but she'd apparently taken time to notice her outfit, too. Starting with her pink and silver butterfly necklace, and ending with her hot pink peep toe heels.

So, at least she knew for sure now she wasn't completely invisible.

"Do you like pink?"

Yes, she did. Pink was just her- just so Sharpay. It defined her. Pretty, glam, cute, but shy sometimes too. Especially as the _new girl._

_Her_.

Pink had so many sides. It could mean punk rock...glamorous...bitchy...girly...maybe gay for the guys, anything.

and now, she wondered- did _she _like pink, too?

* * *

"You have one, too?"

The second thing she ever said to her.

The very next day.

The very same time as yesterday- the end of sixth period; the end of the day.

She nodded.

_She_ smiled. "Cool, what color? Mine's black; red cover."

_Is red her favorite color?_

"Mine's black too...with a pink cover."

The pretty brunette smiled and teasingly replied "_Pink_ cover...of course."

She added emphasis to the "pink."

_She remembered I liked pink..._

They were comparing their LG shine cellphones.

Sharpay had casually taken it out of her pocket, and Gabriella had seen it resting on her desk; at the same time, holding her own in her left hand. (She was texting one of her many friends, of course.)

"Well, you know what my motto is?"

Sharpay was surprised with herself at how cool she was playing it.

_She _was talking to her again. She could almost hear the halelluja chorus.

"What?"

Gabriella flashed her that smile again; showing off a set of perfect, straight white teeth.

Sharpay stared at her smile, awestruck.

Because much like her beauty,

her shiny teeth were blinding.

_Her._

She quickly snapped out of it.

"If it comes in pink- I'll take it!"

Gabriella laughed,

"Nice, I never heard that one before."

a pause.

And then, surprising Sharpay, and making her heart lurch, she said in the kindest voice she'd ever heard in her life, a thing that would forever be embedded into her memory;

"You want to eat lunch with me and my friends tomorrow?"

and there was no way in hell she was going to pass up that- the invatation to sit at lunch tomorrow with;

_Her._

* * *

A/N:

_So was that prologue weird or what? I promise I don't always write like this...I just wanted to try something kind of different. But the rest of the chapters and stuff will be written better and make more sense, I promise. (They'll also be a lot longer then this was, and we'll go back to Sharpay's first day next chapter.) This was pretty much just to show what kind of effect Gabriella has on her._

_Please review, it would mean a lot. I'm actually kind of nervous to post this..but we'll see. Should I even bother continuing? xD_

_-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx_

_PS. If anyone reading this is reading my story "All In The Family"- a new chapter should go up in the next few days. It's almost done! yay!_

* * *


	2. One: At First Glance

**_NoTe: Just so I don't confuse anyone later on, in this story, Vance is Sharpay and Ryan's -STEP- dad. Some things kinda worked better that way._**

**Disclaimer: I don't own HSM, American Idol, MTV or MTV's _Hottie of the Day_ (_Hottie of the Day_ is this thing they do on MTV where viewers vote online for a person who sent in their picture who they think is the hottest or whatever, and the winner is featured on MTV for like 5 seconds a few times that day- just in case anyone didn't know) or anything else I forgot to mention.**

* * *

Her

_Chapter One; **At First Glance**..._

"**_I_**t's time," he sighed, "you ready?"

"Geeze Ryan, you act like we're scared contestants up next in line to audition for American Idol or something." she rolled her eyes.

"What makes you say that?" Ryan turned to her with a look on his face that looked something like a mix of curiousity, nervousness, and anticipation. He placed his hand under his chin and tilted his head to either side, causing his neck to pop. He then cracked his knuckles on either hand afterwards.

Two nervous habbits.

"Are you kidding?" Sharpay laughed at her brother, "Look at you."

The twins were standing in the parking lot in front of their new school, staring up at the main building- almost unsure of what to do. It seemed like secretly they were both waiting for the other sibling to simply go inside the school first; considering, they'd just been standing there like that in front of Sharpay's car for the last five minutes.

"Well, I don't see _you_ bothering to move either," the blonde haired boy pointed out.

"I'm just enjoying watching you get all jumpy," Sharpay lied with an almost convincing smirk. She was nervous as hell- this was all new to her (and to Ryan); being new to a school and everything. The twins along with their mother had just recently moved to Albuquerque less than a week ago and since it was already the middle of the school year, (late January), the two siblings had to be enrolled in school as soon as possible. They'd never been the new kids before, and it was only the second time they'd ever had to move. (The first time being when they were around two years old and they'd moved from Wyoming to Indiana- where they'd since been raised, but that didn't really count since they were still so tiny back then.)

So, _yeah_, naturally they were going to be nervous, but apparently both too stubborn to admit it.

"Whatever, Shar. Let's just go." Ryan said, shifting his navy blue backpack on his shoulder but making no attempt to move anyways. But Sharpay wasn't listening, she was too busy watching a big yellow school bus as it released a group of about 20-30 kids and then drove away from the school.

She watched jealously as the students that had just climbed off the bus laughed with and pushed each other playfully as they parted from the curb where the bus had dropped them. Her eye caught a group of 3 girls who were all wearing matching ugg boots and walking side-by-side into the school, and she had a sudden urge to turn around,jump in her car, drive to her new home and skip her first day completely while instead sulking in her room looking over last year's yearbook.

Instead, she stood there, her eyes glued to the rush of students.

"Shar?" Ryan questioned cautiously, noticing the sudden upset look on his sister's face. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sharpay replied unconvincingly.

"Yes there is, I know you better then that."

She didn't reply, but when he followed her eyes to where a new group of girls standing around in a circle in front of the school were, he instantly knew what the matter was.

He could read her like an open book. "Feeling homesick, again?"

"It's nothing." Sharpay tried to make it sound casual, but her voice broke.

Yes, she missed Indiana along with all of her friends, and now she had to be the stranger new girl that everyone always hates._ Gosh dammit, why'd we have to move_?!

But even she knew that was a silly question, because her mother had told her and Ryan the answer hundreds of times already:

"Because Vance lives and has big business in Albuqurque"

("_So? What's wrong with him visiting us every now and again like he's _been_ doing for the last five years?" Sharpay had argued._

_"Would _you _like to have to be constantly taking airplane rides every four to six weeks?" Derby had snapped at her daughter pointedly._

_"Celebrities do it all the time!" Sharpay shot back, trying to make her own point._

_"Well, your step-father is not a hollywood star."_

Score two for Derby in the "point-making-contest".

_"URG then just tell _him_ to move up_ here_ if he's so sick of RAMJETS!"_

_"He can't do that, Sharpay." Derby had sighed._

_"And why not?!"_

_"Because he _runs_ a_ country club_ up there, you _know_ that!!!")_

Ouch Sharpay, that's _three_.

Needless to say, her mother had won the arguement, and now here she was; standing like some paralyzed special needs person in the middle of the East High School parking lot with "Mr-Male-Version-Of-Me", otherwise known as Ryan, right by her side.

"-and I'm sure you'll make new friends here in no time," his voice cut into her thoughts.

"You know, it really scares me when you start to talk like mom," Sharpay said; the annoyance in her voice palpable. Ryan smiled.

"Just trying to help,"

and then he was off.

Sharpay stared after her brother for a minute, just watching as he retreated from her and made his way up to and into the school. Then finally, not wanting to be alone, she ran after him as fast as her three inch stilleto's would take her, wondering where Ryan's sudden random burst of courage had come from when just minutes ago he'd been shaking in those (very stylish) khaki slacks of his.

****

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Hey...didn't I see you once on MTV's _Hottie of the Day_?"

Sharpay whirled around, coming face to face with a cute dark skinned guy with gleaming white teeth.

Not really a bad pick up line, either. Certainly one she'd never heard before.

She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out, so she quickly closed it again so she didn't seem completely stupid with her mouth hanging open...or mute.

"I'm Zeke Baylor. Are you new?" he stuck his hand out politely, shooting her a kind smile.

"Um...yeah. Sharpay. Nice to meet you," she said, shaking his hand.

"Sharpay, huh? Hm....different," he said. She looked down self consciously, she sometimes hated telling people her name when she first met them, since it often brought some strange reactions. She might as well have been named C_hihuahua _or S_hih-Tzu_, for sobbing out loud.

_Darn my mother and her obsession with dogs! _(Their family had four of them, and her step dad had two more, which came to a total of six crazy dogs running around the house. Not that she, Sharpay, didn't love dogs herself- she completely adored her own little yorkie, Boi, but still...six was a little much for her.)

"But I like different," Zeke told her quickly, (probably noticing her discomfort,) and she smiled awkwardly.

"Thanks," she mumbled quickly while turning back to her locker.

"So who do you have first?"

"....One more time?" she asked, shoving her pink bookbag into her new locker. She and Ryan had parted ways a little while ago after they'd gone to the main office to get their new schedules and lockers. (His was somewhere two halls over.)

Zeke chuckled. "Your first period teacher?

"Oh, right. It says um..." she grabbed her schedule from her skinny jeans pocket and unfolded it, "'R' Darbus....English/Lit." she read aloud and then looked questioningly up at Zeke, who said nothing.

"...So is that a man or woman teacher?" she asked finally.

"Rosemary Darbus..." his facial expression shifted into one that Sharpay couldn't quite tell if it was a good or bad thing.

"So is that good or should I be feeling the desire to go and demand for a schedule adjustment for homeroom?" she smiled.

"That depends," Zeke laughed, "Darbus could spend all period lecturing you. How's your attention span?"

"Um...good...fine I guess," she answered uncertainly.

"Then don't worry, you'll do just fine," the shiny smile returned to his face. They were both quiet for a moment when just for the record, he casually threw in that he had Darbus third period.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

Ok she had to admit it, Sharpay had somewhat expected it that when she walked into the classroom, it would be just like it was in all the movies- where the new kid would kind of nervously stumble into the classroom almost acting as if they didn't know which way was up, and then the whole class would look up and stare with either interest or automatic dislike at said new kid as if they were some freakishly intriguing creature from another planet.

But lucky it wasn't like that. It was the total opposite, actually. There was still a few more minutes left before class actually started, and several students were standing around the classroom in little groups chatting amongst themselves. (Mostly girls...not that many guys were even in the room yet.)

Nobody looked up as Sharpay made her silent and smooth entrance into the room. Her plan first off had been to immediatley and formally introduce herself to this Rosemary Darbus so she wouldn't get called out on in the middle of class, but seeing as the teacher was not even in the room yet, she kind of lingered back in the door frame, unsure of really what to do and wishing class would start already.

A minute passed and more students began filing into the classroom one by one. Some flashed her polite or curious quick-y quick smiles as they passed by her, and others just looked quickly at her before shifting the direction of their eyes elswhere. Sharpay could swear that she heard one guy cough and mutter "fake blonde hoe" before walking quickly past her. This remark was followed by a round of loud obnoxious laughter from two of the guys buddies.

But for the most part, she was simply ignored, making her feel awkward and self conscious all over again, but also a little less pressured. Oh how she wished Ryan was with her. But she didn't have him in a class until next period.

There was still no sign of the teacher. Sharpay was just about to say "oh forget it" and slide into a nearby vacant seat, but stopped short when a fellow blonde approached her.

"Are you lost? You look a little unsure of what you're doing..."

"No, I'm...I'm new."

"OHH," realization dawned on her. "Ms. Darbus I think said something about a new person yesterday."

"Said something?...."

The girl shrugged casually. "Breifly mentioned you'd be joining us. I'm Emma, by the way."

"Nice to meet you," Sharpay said whole heartedly, thankful that someone was talking to her so she didn't have to feel all that invisible or alone anymore.

"Yeah," Emma looked expectantly at her while tilting her head to the side. Sharpay stared back.

"...So do you have a name?... Or should I just call you 'new-girl'?"

"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry," Sharpay quickly apologized for her rudeness. "I guess I'm a little out of it today...all the nerves, I suppose. My name is..." she trailed off as another person entered the classroom, sauntering passed her and Emma without looking up. She was a tanned light brown skinned girl with dark brown hair and large dark brown eyes, she also had long eyelashes and her red lips curved upward into a grin as she listened with interest to something another girl with even darker features was saying to her.

She was wearing a cute knee length flower printed dress with silver heels, and her hair almost looked literally perfect, but also as if she didn't even have to try all that much- like it was completely natural. There was no frizz at all, it was soft and shiny looking and fell in perfect loose curls a quarter of the way down her back.

She was _really really pretty_, Sharpay concluded- this thought coming from the girl who'd been thinking Zeke Baylor was a cutie just minutes before.

"Wow."

She didn't even realize she'd muttered the word.

"_Wow_? Interesting, that must've been your mother's reaction when you were born, huh? And that's why she named you that?" Emma asked tentatively. Sharpay didn't reply. She was too busy watching _that girl _who'd taken a seat in the back of the classroom talking to her friend next to her, with great interest, but Emma remained oblivious to that.

"I didn't mean that in a bad way...I meant um...her reaction to your cuteness?" she tried. She waited a few more seconds and still got no reply.

"....What're you looking at?" she turned around but found nothing particularly interesting to be watching- just a classroom full of regular people.

"What? Oh sorry I was just um...thinking about something." Sharpay finally said mysteriously, snapping out of it. "Anyway, my name is Sharpay."

"Oh ok. That's a cool name...unique. Not as interesting as Wow though." Emma smiled. Sharpay just nodded and thanked her quickly, her eyes still fixed on a certain brunette in the back of the classroom who was still engrossed in a conversation with the other girl she'd walked in with.

"_Whose that_?" Sharpay _wanted _to ask Emma, but she didn't want to come off as weird for randomly asking for the name of one specific person in the classroom...a girl, at that, so she wouldn't be able to use the excuse that she'd just thinking that some _guy _was hot and wanted to know his name.

That's when the bell rang, and a few more students scrambled quickly into the classroom and into their seats hoping they wouldn't be counted as tardy for just barely making it. After those last few teens, Sharpay saw an older looking woman with gold-white hair tied back in a bun and large transparent brown rimmed glasses walk in carrying a thick notebook.

Sharpay instantly realized that this _must _be Ms. Darbus, and immediatley sprang into action (meaning she left Emma standing by the door frame and followed Darbus to her desk), wanting to get this over with and make it quick before the class chatter died down and people began to notice and stare. Teenagers had a tendency for that.

"Good morning, my name is Sharpay. Today's my first day and I just thought I should properly introduce myself," she told the teacher almost sounding professional, she'd already thought of what to say beforehand so she didn't stutter and look stupid in front of her teacher. Good first impressions were always a plus, not that her goal was to try and be a pet or anything either.

"Oh! Yes, the school secretary did inform me that I'd have a new student today," Ms. Darbus said, speaking with a thick accent that Sharpay hadn't really heard anywhere else before.

"Well, two, my brother Ryan I think has you sixth period."

"Of course! Well, I hope you're able to find yourself right at home here at East High."

"Thank you, I think I'll like it, but it's kind of early to tell," Sharpay said.

"So...where should I be seated?"

"Oh you're free to go ahead and pick any open seat for now," Ms. Darbus answered. Sharpay nodded and thanked her before wandering over to an empty seat in the back,

and it was more than just convenient that that seat just so happened to be only two seats over from whats-her-name...who still had not taken one peek in Sharpay's direction. (But several other people were.)

Emma, Sharpay noticed, had seated herself three rows_ from _the back.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

Sharpay didn't know why, but for some reason (that even kind of weirded herself out), she was hoping that she would have /that one girl/ in her next class as well as her first. Her name had turned out to be Gabriella, as she'd heard Ms. Darbus call her that when she'd caught her texting someone in the middle of class and had confiscated her cell phone, telling her that it would be placed in some box in the office called "The June Box" until the _end of the year _and that she would have to spend half the lunch period in lunch detention.

"How was your first period?"

"Fine. You?"

The twins had met up in the hallway and were walking side by side to their next class which thankfully for Sharpay, was only a little ways down the hall from where her first period just was, so it wasn't that far of a walk.

"Me too, but Mr. Callaway is so boring that half the class was fast asleep less than ten minutes after class started," Ryan told his sister.

"History _can_ do that do a person," Sharpay smiled.

"Yup...while algebra can make your head e_xplode_," the blonde boy commented in reference to what they both had second period, "too many numbers."

"Can't say I disagree."

They entered the classroom, and each one introduced themselves to Ms. Fischer before taking empty seats side by side in the middle row. Only 3 other people excluding the teacher were in the classroom, as class still didn't start for another three minutes. Everyone really seemed to value the five minute break they got in between classes.

"Oh shoot," Sharpay said suddenly, realizing something.

"What?" Ryan asked, adjusting his blue cap.

"I guess I left last period in a bit of a hurry, and I forgot to grab the text book my teacher assigned me," Sharpay explained.

"So just get it tomorrow, It's not going anywhere," Ryan shrugged. Sharpay glanced at the clock, contemplating whether she should go back and get it or not.

"Well I still have a little more than two minutes, and I don't want Ms. Darbus _already _thinking I'm irresponsible...maybe I should just go grab it..." she said hesitantly, biting her lip.

"Do whatever you want sis, but the clock's still ticking as you sit there and try to decide what to do," Ryan told her, pointing at the clock above the door which said that class started in precisely two minutes and forty three seconds.

Sharpay sprang up. "I'll be right back," she zipped out of the classroom in a hurry and walked down the hall back to Ms Darbus's room as fast as she could.

She was surprised to find the classroom mostly empty when she got there literally ten (if not less) seconds later, with the exception of two people. It must've been Darbus's prep period- where she didn't have a class.

"I'm sorry Gabriella, but maybe next time you'll think twice before deciding to have your phone out in the middle of my lesson."

Gabriella, who was standing in front of Ms. Darbus's desk, sighed. "But Ms. Darbus, if my mom finds out I had my cell taken away I'll be grounded for a year!"

"Well if that's what you're worried about, I'm much too busy to go making phone calls home to your mother about this anyway," the teacher replied. That's when she heard another presence enter and glanced over Gabriella's shoulder.

"Oh! Hello Sharpay, did you forget something?"

"Um yeah I accidentally forgot my textbook," Sharpay admitted, quickly walking over to the desk she'd used last period and grabbing her book which sure enough was sitting in the notebook rack under the seat.

Gabriella glanced quickly back at Sharpay, wondering who she was and had she really been in her first period class? She couldn't remember, but she was instantly jealous of her hair. She'd always thought it'd be cool to be a blonde, but always figured it would not contrast with her skin tone at all.

But she couldn't think about that now, she was already in the middle of something. She turned quickly back to Ms. Darbus.

"Whether you call my mom or not she'll still notice, she watches my every move, I think she'll notice if my cell phone turns up missing until the last day of school!"

"Gabriella what has gotten into you? I've never had to argue with you before."

"I know Ms. Darbus, and I made a mistake, but could you please cut me some slack here?"

Sharpay was already gone by this point, but she'd practically had to force herself not to stay and see who the 'winner' of this 'battle' would be- especially since Gabriella, the girl she'd been watching practically all throughout first period was there.

Ms. Darbus sighed, "Alright Gabriella, you can get your phone back at the end of the day from Rocky. BUT, I'm afraid you still have lunch detention in the theater with me. We could always use a helping hand."

Gabriella's face lit up, but quickly fell again at everything after the word "Rocky". (Rocky is the school's security guard.)

"Well...alright. I guess I deserve that. But thank you!"

The teacher nodded. "Off you go now, and hurry up or you'll be late to your next class."

"I'll be ok. It's just down the hall."

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Oh how nice of you it is to join us, Ms. Montez."

Ms. Fischer's eyes narrowed.

"I had to take care of and emergency, I'm sorry," she half-lied as light blush crept upon her cheeks. She'd only ever been late to class a few times in her entire life, and had hated those precise four times that it'd happened. And maybe practically begging to get her phone back wasn't that much of an "emergency", but anyone who knew her mother would have seen why she'd done it.

She quickly scooted into her seat in the second row, not noticing the pair of chocolate brown eyes that were glued to her.

Sharpay smiled slightly to herself, for some reason feeling proud that she was the only one who knew the real reason why Gabriella was late, and also feeling a random tinge of happiness that she had her in both classes so far.

_What is going on with me today? _she thought silently, wondering why she seemed to be so..._infatuated _with some random _girl_ that she didn't even _know_. She did feel pretty weird about it, but for some reason, she just was and couldn't help it.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Sharpay!"

Both of the twin's heads shot up at the sound of the five-minute-younger twins name being called from probably halfway across the cafeteria.

"Sharpay over here!" the voice called again.

"Whose that?" Ryan was the first to locate the face of the girl who was standing up at her table smiling and waving his sister over.

"That's Emma. She's in my homeroom," Sharpay explained with a giggle. Emma looked kind of rediculous randomly shouting at her from halfway across the room, and it was even funnier that she didn't seem to notice or care about the weird looks that some people threw at her. Sharpay watched as one guy glared at her for being so loud, and she just glared right back.

"Mind if I join her?"

"Go ahead, I'm gonna try to find some people I met first period, too," Ryan said, waving his sister goodbye as they parted ways.

"Hi," Sharpay said with a nervous smile as she approached the table consisting of Emma and two other girls who she hadn't met yet.

"Hey, this is Lea," Emma told her, gesturing to the red head at the table, "and this is Jackie," she finished introducing her two best friends.

"Nice to meet you both, I'm Sharpay," Sharpay said, making sure she said her name this time like she _hadn't _earlier when she'd first met Emma.

"You too," Jackie smiled.

"Yeah, and you can sit down, you know," Lea added, pointing at the empty seat across from her and next to Emma.

"Right," she sat down quickly with her smoothie.

"Is that all you're having?" Emma asked her, noticing that all she had was a red smoothie with her.

"Well, I don't usually get hungry this early. At my old school, we ate lunch at 11:45, and right now it's only 10:30," Sharpay explained. The girls each nodded.

"Yeah, you'll get used to the crazy lunch schedule here eventually though," Lea said.

"So what school did you come from?" Jackie asked.

"Paul Harding High, it's in Indiana. This place called Fort Wayne."

"Why'd you move?" Emma asked.

"My step-dad has business up here. He and my mom met almost six years ago when she and my brother and I were vacationing in Florida. I guess they instantly fell in love or something, and I guess it became too hard for them to keep living so far away from each other."

"No offense, but how come it took them five years to realize that?" It was Leas turn to ask a question. Sharpay shrugged.

"Crazy middle aged people," she smiled. Just then there was a loud round of extremely girlish giggles/laughter erupting from two tables over, attracting the attention of several of the people at the other tables surrounding theirs.

"What could seriously be _that _funny?" Emma mumbled, more to herself than to the other three at the table. "They do that _every _day."

"I think they only do that to get guy's attention," Jackie frowned, "I bet one of them says 'juice box' and they all burst into hysterics."

"HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAY TO YOUUUU! HAAAAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAAAY TOOOO YOUUU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR KELSIIII! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUU!!"

The laughter came again, louder this time, after the little song the girls had just practically screamed the lyrics too.

"Well I guess that explains the laughter. We all like embarassing our friends from time to time, huh?" Sharpay couldn't help but laugh a little herself as she was able to easily point out the girl that must be Kelsi at the table. She had glasses and loose light brown curly hair, could slightly resemble Mary-Kate Olsen if she lost the glasses.....and was the only one at the table with a bright red face full of embarassment.

"I wonder where Gabriella is," Lea wondered out loud, noticing that the 'leader' of their little posse was no where in sight. "She's usually the one belting out the Happy Birthday song the loudest whenever it's one of their b-days."

Sharpay instantly became twice as interested at the mention of Gabriella.

"Gabriella Montez?" she asked Lea, who nodded.

"Wow, not even third period on your first day and you've _already _heard of her?" Jackie asked.

"Well uh...she's in my first two classes," Sharpay said, confused. "Ms. Darbus yelled at her for having her phone out during first period or something," she tried to make it sound casual- as if Gabriella _wasn't_ all she'd been thinking about since she first saw her earlier that day.

"Oh yeah, I remember that now," Emma laughed. "I think Ms. D said she had lunch detention."

"Montez in detention?" Jackie scoffed,

"Now _that_ is front page news worthy!" Lea cut in.

"Do you guys not like her?" Sharpay wondered, picking up a resentful vibe from the three of them.

"Well, it's not that we dislike her, she's just kind of..." Emma paused, struggling to find what word she should use to describe the most goody-goody-two-shoed, too perfect, too sweet, crazy religious, most popular girl in school.

"Annoying," Lea finished, and her two friends nodded in agreement.

"Oh really? Like how?" Sharpay frowned, not liking the sound of this. Lea shrugged.

"She acts like she's so perfect sometimes and it just seems really fake. I _swear_ she has some kind of hidden agenda."

"And she has this little posse- Her, Kelsi Neilson, Martha Cox, and most of her other friends- which is about half the dance team; they're _all _Mormon," Jackie said.

"That's not bad though, is it?" Sharpay asked, now even more confused. She didn't know that much about all the different kinds of religions in the world- she herself hadn't really been to church since the age of ten. It wasn't that she didn't 'believe' in God or anything, her family just never made that big of a deal about it or much of an effort to go to church.

"No, of course not, but that group of theirs acts like they're so much better than everyone else. It's like they think the rest of us are going straight to the deep dark pits of hell or something."

"No, what about Taylor?" Lea pointed out. "She's no Mormon."

"Well, Taylor McKessie has been like her best friend since pre - K," Jackie told her.

"How long have you guys known her?" Sharpay asked.

"Since elementary school, and we've probably exchanged ten words with little miss "I'm-God's-Gift-to-Earth" since then," Emma answered in mock tone.

"Come on, if you've known her that long it had to have been more than that."

"We're telling you Sharpay, she acts like everyone outside her 'Mormon Clique' plus McKessie doesn't exist," Emma told her, putting air quotes with her fingers around the words "Mormon Clique".

"Yep, so there's not really a point in bothering," Jackie agreed. "But it doesn't really matter anyway."

_No point in bothering? Doesn't matter anyway? Fake? Hidden agenda? God's Gift to Earth?_

Sharpay replayed the main points of their conversation in her head, and while part of her figured that she should believe them since they'd said they'd known Gabriella for a while, another part couldn't help but think they were only saying those things about her because she seemed a bit more popular then anything of them were, so maybe they were 'just jealous'?

Sharpay didn't want to believe that any of the bad things Emma, Jackie, and Lea said about Gabriella Montez were true, and she still hoped that eventually maybe they could end up being friends.

But there was one thing that Emma had said about Gabriella that Sharpay for some crazy reason already agreed with...of course, she didn't think it in the mocking, bitter way that Emma had put it,

and that was the _God's Gift to Earth _part.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

_I hope I didn't make Sharpay seem too....I don't know...."stalkerish", I guess? xP 'Cause she's not_ supposed_ to be like a freaky obsessive stalker person, just to get that straight right now haha. :P_

_Also, I think a lot of people think that Mrs. Evans first name is Darby, and so did I, but on the HSM2 pop-up version thing that came on a couple nights ago, it said her name was Derby. Just for a head's up. And of course, the Emma, Jackie, and Lea in here are the original Sharpettes we all known from HSM2, but in this story...they're not really going to be her followers. Just friends. :) Unless I change my mind, of course! haha._

_One last thing. I don't live in Indiana or know anyone from Indiana, but I looked it up and picked a random high school from a random town from there. But I myself am no way associated with anyone from Paul Harding High in Fort Wayne. ;)_

_Please review, I would really appreciate to know your thoughts on this._

_-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx_


	3. Two: That Was Easy!

**Disclaimer: Disney owns HSM. And no, I don't work for Disney.**

* * *

Her

_Chapter Two; **That was Easy!**_

_"**D**_id you say you had Ms. Bauman for History sixth period?"

"Yeah, what about you?"

"Mr. Ensley, but him and Bauman have a conjoined class."

Sharpay was walking down the hallway with Zeke, on her way to sixth period. Or rather, Zeke was walking with Sharpay. She'd just been walking by herself and he'd kind of popped out of no where and started walking and chatting with her. She was sort of getting used to it by now though, he'd kind of been doing that to her all day.

"You mean they mix their classes?" Sharpay asked him. He nodded.

"How do they do that? Is the classroom big enough for all those kids?"

"No," Zeke chuckled, "their rooms are next door to each other, and you know those classroom wall separator things that can open and close?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, that's what splits up the one huge classroom into two rooms instead of a normal wall, and they just decided to keep it open and teach their classes together."

"Why's that?"

"I think they're engaged or dating or something," Zeke answered with a casual shrug, "I mean that's what everyone says. They're '_inseperable'" _he added mockingly with two air quotes. The look on his face gave away that he could get sick and throw up at any second. No guy would want to have to sit in a classroom for an hour knowing that the two people teaching right in front of them could have some very naughty intimate secrets of their own!

"-also what everyone says."

Mostly everyone thought it was basically weird and gross, with the exception of some girls in the school who found it "too cute for words."

"Has anyone asked them if they were dating or whatever?" Sharpay questioned, "Or is it just a rumor?"

"They haven't confirmed it. One kid last year had the guts to ask 'em and Ensley told him to shut up, mind his own business, and two weeks detention for 'poking into staff member's personal lives'," Zeke told her seriously.

"Come on, really?" she asked in disbelief. "That seems a little too harsh."

"No, it's true. Mr. Ensley can be a real jackass."

"That's horrible," Sharpay commented disapprovingly. "I don't think people should date their co-workers anyway. I mean, especially not when they're teaching side by side all day. You know how fast they'd get sick of each other? Either that or they'd just be so in love that they'd have to fight hard not to pounce on each other right in front of everyone every second."

"Seriously!" Zeke laughed, "You make a good point, Sharpay," he smiled. "Everyone around here just says it's weird and moves on, but you put it in such a different way."

"Thanks...I think," Sharpay scrunched up her nose in confusion, not knowing whether to feel honored or embarassed for her apparent over analyzation of the situation.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

Sharpay didn't end up having Gabriella in any of her afternoon classes. Just first period so far, making her feel slightly dissappointed for some whacked out reason.

So when she stepped into a freakishly large classroom for sixth period with Zeke still by her side, her heart and stomach each did a funny lurch when she saw the brown eyed beauty sitting at a table near the right side of the room in about the middle row.

The classroom was devided into two parts, Sharpay saw. There was a cluster of about fifteen or so tables on each side of the room, each one having two seats per table. Lastly, there was one tall black table complete with two tall black stools off to the side of the room, right in the middle of the two devided parts to the room.

One half of all the class tables one one side of the room were facing the tall black desk from one direction, while the rest of the tables set off on the other side of the room were facing the black desk from the other direction. Basically, the two sides of tables were facing each other with the black one in the far side-middle.

It was a pretty.... _weird _looking classroom arrangement, Sharpay decided. But she could see how it could hold sixty or so students all in one class period, and it was pretty full already.

"Bolton what the_ heck_ are you wearing!?" a middle aged man who slightly resembled the looks of David Deluise (the dude who plays the dorky dad on_ Wizards of Waverly Place_) and whom was sitting in one of the stools at the tall black desk was practically shouting at a chestnut hair colored boy.

"Go Redhawks!" the boy simply enthused with an innocent smirk before promptly sliding his arms out of his red and white leather jacket with the words " 'A' Redhawks" embedded into the back and swinging it around in the air. A chorus of "WOO-HOO!'s" erupted from himself and two other jock type looking guys in the class. One with a big fluffy afro, and the other with shaggy black hair.

"Wipe that smirk off your face, boy! and have your seat or maybe I'll just be forced to glue your butt right down to it!"

"Patrick, calm down," the woman sitting next to the nearly outraged man told him with a simple eye roll.

"Yes, sir!" the still smirking boy answered, turning around and swatting the afro-head guy behind him with a high five before plopping down ungracefully in his seat in the second row.

"That's my friend, Troy. He's a _big _Redhawks fan. Actually, everyone on the basketball team here is, including me," Zeke told Sharpay, noticing her as she watched the scene unfold. "And that right there is Chad," he added, pointing to the dark guy with the afro, "and that's Jason."

He waited for her to say something, particularly wishing she would impressively say "You're on the basketball team?" and smile flirtatiously at him.

That didn't happen. In fact, she made no comment what-so-ever, which felt like a pretty big slap in the face for Zeke. It was considered an honor around East High to be a member of the basketball team, which had gone undefeated for seven years running, and still was to that very day.

Then again, he remembered, she was new and most likely didn't know all of that. But still...didn't she like him _at all_?

"...But Mr. E over there doesn't seem to quite understand why. He pretty much hates the U of A sports program...ever since last year when the basketball team lost half their games and the football team only won two of theirs. But everyone mostly agrees that it was the coach's faults last year. They taught 'em horrible plays and basically sucked. Luckily, there's new ones this time around, and we, over here at East High, are undefeated so Ensley should at least treat us a little better, dont 'cha think?" Zeke tried with a slightly forced chuckle.

Sharpay nodded.

"And that must be Ms. Bauman," she stated assumptively rather than asking a question, gesturing with her head to the woman who was arguing silently with Mr. Ensley. You could tell they were bickering by the displeased look on her face.

On the plus side, they made a cute couple...for two forty year olds, anyway. (They looked around that age.)

"Yup. Already fighting like an old married couple, eh?" Zeke chuckled. Sharpay didn't comment on that, either.

_She doesn't talk much, does she? _Zeke thought.

"What side do I sit on?" she asked instead, looking unsurely from one side of the room to the other.

"That, over there, is Bauman's side. See you," he answered, giving her a light but sure push to the right side of the room as he set off to the left, which was now obviously Mr. Ensley's side. Sharpay watched after Zeke as he took a seat next to that Troy guy and they shared one of those "manly handshake/knuckle touch" things.

Sharpay hesitantly made her way to an empty seat in the front row, almost directly in front of Gabriella, who she noticed was scribbling something down in her notebook even though class hadn't started yet. She didn't even seem to be aware of any of her surroundings. She was probably just doodling.

_Maybe if she were a bit more noticeable of things, I'd make an effort to talk to her_, Sharpay thought, almost annoyed. Maybe Emma, Jackie, and Lea hadn't been messing around earlier at lunch when they'd said that the "Mormon Posse" pretty much ignored everyone but each other...and that one Taylor girl, for that matter.

The bell rang.

Most of the people in the class of at least fifty or more students rambled on with each other, as if they hadn't noticed that class had started.

"HEY," Mr. Ensley shouted, whipping out a mini wooden mallet from out of nowhere and slamming it on the black table five or six times- hard.

"Patrick, you'll break it!" Ms. Bauman shouted, horrified as the class started to get quieter and quieter.

"What? The table or the mallet?"

"BOTH, MR. E!" some random guy in the back of the classroom on Mr. Ensley's side shouted out rather loudly.

"HEY! Stay quiet and out of this conversation or I'm gonna take this here mallet and chop you so low you'll have to hold up a sign that says _'Please Don't Spit I Can't Swim_'!" Ensley threatened emptily.

After that, the entire class became so silent that you could probably hear a crickets chirping noise had it been night time. Out of all the stupid, "hardy-har-har" (note the sarcasm) things their teacher had ever said in attempts to either be threatening or funny, that _had _to be one of the worst failures yet...or best failures, it depended on how you looked at things.

"Hey, they're all quiet. Maybe you should say things like that more often, Pat," Ms. Bauman told him with an amused smile.

"Like he doesn't already," someone to the left of Sharpay muttered.

Mr. Ensley rolled his eyes at what Bauman said and swatted a red button on their shared table with the word "easy" written in white letters on the top of it, and the only sound that filled the classroom for a moment was a robotic, mechanic voice say wisely from the button itself;

"**_THAT was easy_**!"

"The button has SPOKEN!" Ensley asserted, but the class was so used to that stupid 'easy' button of his by now that he literally pressed at least ten times in a single class period, that the only one who couldn't help but let out a chuckle at this goofy, crazy, _immature _teacher was Sharpay.

"Excuse me, blondie? Who are _you_?" Ensley questioned her in a way that Sharpay couldn't tell if he was just fooling around or if he intended to sound so....ill mannered-ish.

But it didn't really matter either way, because that was when Sharpay felt all fifty pairs of eyes suddenly focus on her _at once_. She felt a deep blush creep upon her cheeks, and for a moment she was at a loss for words. How would you like to have one hundred eyes staring at you, waiting for you to speak?

Luckily, she didn't have to, because someone else behind her spoke before she could...not that she really would have, anyway.

"That's....um.... the new girl. She's in my homeroom."

She quickly whirled around, surprised to see no one other than Gabriella herself, staring right at Mr. Ensley. She was without a doubt the one who'd just spoken.

_So she HAS acknowledged my appearance._

So, maybe she'd introduced her to a room jam packed full of people as "the new girl", and maybe she seemed to have forgotten or never even noticed that she was _also_ in her second period class as _well_ as her homeroom, but at least Sharpay now knew for sure now that she wasn't completely invisible to this beautiful stranger.

Besides, a number of people in the class probably knew or had at least had heard of Sharpay by now and knew her name anyways, seeing as it _was _sixth period. She did, in fact, recognize several familiar faces from her other classes beforehand...none of them had she actually _talked _to, yet though- with the exception of Zeke. (and a couple of other people, but with these few the conversation had always just been something like;

_"Are you new?"_

_"Yeah, I'm Sharpay"_

_"Oh nice to meet you. Where're you from? I'm_ -insert name here-_"_

_"You too. Indiana...we _just_ moved here."_

_"Oh that's cool. Hope you like it here."_

_"Yeah, thank you."_

_"No prob."_

End of story.

If it wasn't obvious already, Sharpay wasn't and never had been very good at _small talk _except on those rare occasions when she got a random surge of confidence.)

"Don't bother introducing the girl if you can't even remember her name, Gabriella," Ensley told Gabriella, whose lips turned down into a frown.

"Who said I didn't?"

" 'That's, um_...the new girl_!' AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ensley mocked Gabriella with high pitched voice and a teasing smirk. He was like that with everyone.

"I don't laugh like that!"

"What's your name?" Ms. Bauman asked nicely (almost _too _nicely....fake, almost) cutting in and directing her full attention on Sharpay. She'd learned to ignore 'Patrick's' squabbles with their students long ago.

"I'm Sharpay," she finally was able to find her voice.

"She speaks!" Mr. Ensley announced in an over dramatic, loud tone. Then, with his right hand, he reached across the table and-

"**_THAT was easy!_**"

Sharpay was still too embarassed to make any sound this time, not even the lightest of chuckles.

"Oh. Well, Mr. Ensley and I were just confused for a moment because we haven't pulled up the attendance sheets yet, but I'm sure you're on mine since you're on my side of the room," Ms. Bauman said in what this time was an obviously very fake, sickeningly sweet voice as she got up and crossed the room to her regular desk and turned on the computer screen. Sharpay wasn't gonna lie, Ms. Bauman seemed like a kind of snobby, _plastic_ kind of woman. Just the way she carried herself as she shimmied across room said "look at me, I'm the sexiest forty year old you'll ever meet in your life. Are you worthy enough for me to teach you?" about her. So did that very very fake voice of hers.

No exaggerations here!

Sharpay wasn't usually one to go around judging people when she'd only known them, or rather, known _of_ them for less than ten minutes, but so far she wasn't picking up a very good vibe from either of these two teachers. Mr. Ensley was okay, just kind of...freaky and immature?

"What's your last name?" Ms. Bauman's voice cut into her thoughts.

"Evans," she replied simply and softly.

"Evans....Sharpay....here you are, the teacher was basically talking to herself by this point.

"Might as well take the rest of your attendance while your over there," Ensley told her. He had since moved to his own personal desk on his side of the class. That tall black one in the middle just seemed to be an extra one there for the both of them to use and sit at whenever.

_Zeke was right about the whole 'inseperable' thing_, Sharpay thought, eyeing the desk.

The next five minutes went by slowly as Sharpay sat boredly in her seat waiting for something to happen. Most of her classmates were talking quietly to each other by this point, since Ensley and Bauman were still taking attendance. But she sat quietly, not really knowing who to talk too. Maybe it would have been a little bit easier had Jackie Lea or Emma been in that class with her...

"Troy asked me out yesterday," Gabriella told her friend and the birthday girl Kelsi who was sitting next to her.

"No way, what'd you say?"

"No, obviously."

"Short and simple, just like that?" Kelsi asked in disbelief. Gabriella quickly shook her head.

"No, I didn't want to be that mean. I told him sorry, but I wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend but that I thought he was a nice guy and perhaps we could be friends and blah blah blah- all those other dumb lies you have to say when you want to reject someone the easy way."

"I don't really think there _is_ an easy way, Gabs, and do you still really believe you're not allowed to date? You've turned down every guy that's ever asked you out."

"Well I guess since I'm 'sixteen or older' I am allowed, but no guys interest me. Now, it's just a personal descision. Here, they're all just _immature pigs_," Gabriella explained putting air quotes around the phrase "sixteen or older" since that's what her mom had always told her from the time she was in the fifth grade- when her best friend Taylor had gotten her first 'boyfriend';

_"NO dating until you're sixteen or older, Bella! We have morals in this household and you will honor them always."_

Not that she had ever really cared much. She wasn't some boy obssessed crazy yuck. Most people for some reason even found it hard to believe when she told them she didn't and had never really liked anyone like _that_.

"He didn't seem all that affected by it anyway, did you see how he was acting with Mr. Ensley just now before class started?"

Kelsi nodded 'yes',

"Yep, just like his normal self- all Redhawk Wild and whatnot," she said.

"Yeah, not heart broken and mopey. So I guess that's good, I don't wanna make anyone feel bad," Gabriella added, unaware of the fact that she'd just made_ Sharpay_ feel bad today by completely forgetting her name sooo easily and hardly even acting like she was even alive.

Yes, Sharpay _did_ sometimes get _easily offended_.

"OK, got my attendance all cleared up!" Mr. Ensley announced in his normal loud, yet now, fake Australian-accent coated voice as he went back over to the tall black desk and slapped what had already become a familar device to Sharpay.

"_**THAT was easy**_!"

"Me, too. Everyone turn to page 79 in your books and takes notes on the section. Remember your test is next week, so I hope you'll all be prepared,"

this reminder of Ms. Bauman's caused a loud, low groan from about half of the entire two classes- so half from each side also.

"Aw who friggin' cares about Jamestown and Chesapeake Bay!?" The bushy haired kid that Zeke had pointed out earlier named Chad called out loudly upon turning to the correct page in his textbook and quickly scanning over the first couple sentences in the introduction paragraph on what the section was to be about.

"Danforth the' will be **_no_** yellin' in this class unless it's comin' from myself! I _forbode _it! Git' ot!" Mr. Ensley shouted in that fake Australian accent, pointing angrily at one of the two classroom doors. (One door on each side of the combined classrooms)

"And no use of the word 'friggin', 'I' ther!"

Why he was trying to talk australian, Sharpay didn't know. It was very random and just thrown out there. But you can bet one hundred percent that she was wondering that exact thing.

Chad quickly stood up, gathered his belongings, and kind of harrumphed all the way to and out the classroom door without another word.

The whole class, including the two teachers were silent for a long awkward moment after the door slammed behind Chad Danforth.

Then suddenly, after a short while, Mr. Ensley loudly (he seemed to do everything that way) cleared his throat, and, once again-

"**_THAT was easy_**!!!"

The class surprisingly laughed this time- probably because it had been so dead silent and their classmate had just been kicked out.

Sharpay blinked. This was sure going to be an interesting school year.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Hey, Shar. How was your first day?"

On any other day Vance would have been working his butt off down at the country club, but he'd given himself the next week off so he could help his wife and stepchildren unpack and get themselves settled into his home. (For a man that had up to just recently lived alone, he did have a pretty big house anyway- so there was still room for everybody. Everybody being Sharpay, Ryan, and Derby who was sharing his room anyway.)

"Fine....um...interesting, to say the least," Sharpay answered her stepdad as she walked into the living room, tossing her schoolbag on the ground and sinking into a recliner. Ryan had wandered on upstairs to his room.

"Ah, how about the most?"

"Put that upstairs," her mother told her, eyeing her bag. Vance and Derby were sitting side by side on one of the couches- probably just taking a break since they'd been unpacking and arranging furniture and things all day.

"I will, I'm not a slob, you know that," Sharpay told her mother surely.

"So how _was _school?...." her mother then asked, changing back to the original subject.

"A little bit better then I expected, I guess," she shrugged and then, knowing what her parents were wondering and sparing them the trouble of asking, added "I made a few friends."

"That's great," Derby smiled. "So where's your brother?"

"He went upstairs already."

"Oh, alright."

"You gonna finish unpacking your room? I brought the rest of your boxes up for you," Vance said.

"Yeah I will a little later, and thanks. But right now I've gotta get started on my homework," Sharpay said, standing and picking up her schoolbag. "Bye," she threw in and quickly went upstairs.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Did you guys see Jackie and her friends at lunch today?" Martha Cox asked her friends.

"No, I was too busy trying to hide my embarassment of all of you announcing to the word that it was my birthday," Kelsi smiled.

"Yeah....and _I_ was too busy painting a paper mache' _tree _in detention!"

"Oh yeah!" Taylor McKessie laughed, "How'd that turn out for ya, Bri?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Let's just say that I will make sure to never text during Ms. Darbus's class again. _Ever_. Not even if I'm_ really_ careful. Which reminds me, I gotta find Rocky after practice. I think he has my phone."

The four girls were sitting in a little circle after school that day, stretching. The gym was filled with about forty other girls that were all also on the East High dance team.

"I know what you mean. Remember when she chewed me out last semester for wearing that skirt that was just like one inch shorter than what the school required for the dress code? I make sure to measure my skirts whenever I buy a new one now!" Taylor exclaimed.

"Yeah right," Gabriella chuckled in disbelief.

"I'm not even kidding. I keep a tape measure in my purse."

"My mom doesn't even allow me to wear skirts unless they go waaaay past the knee- I'm barely even allowed to wear _shorts_," Kelsi told her friends while stretching her hamstrings.

"Me either," Gabriella added. "That's also why I always have to pack sweatpants in my gym bag and hide my shorts in case she happens to peek in there."

"Ditto," Martha put in, "but skirts aren't really my style anyway. So it doesn't really matter."

"Mhm. So what were you saying about Jackie?" Taylor then asked her. Martha shrugged.

"I don't know, it was weird. I look over one minute and those three were just giving us this weird stare,"

"Well, that wasn't exactly an uncommon thing at lunch today," Taylor grinned at Kelsi, who rolled her eyes and smiled, causing the African American girl to laugh.

"No, it was like fifteen minutes after we sang...and probably during, too. I don't know what it is but I just don't think those girls like us..." Martha said slowly.

"Hmm...this isn't the first time you've said that, Mar," Gabriella recalled to last week when Martha had also mentioned then that those girls- Jackie, Lea, and Emma were glaring at them or something.

"Yeah, and if they hate us or whatever, then so be it. We don't have to talk to them or anything," Taylor said.

"Well, that's true, Tay," Kelsi agreed, "but I do kind of think it's weird that they apparently always give us those weird looks when we didn't really do anything to them."

"I saw that new girl walking with them in the hall after fourth," Gabriella commented. "Looks like the trio's found a new member."

"Yeah, and I bet she'll start hating us too," Martha said bitterly. She was a pretty sensitive person, and didn't like it at all that those three girls had never seemed to like her or any of her friends, especially when they didn't really do anything.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves..." Taylor warned.

"Are you guys talking about the one who Mr. Ensley was yelling at you about forgetting her name or whatever during sixth?" Kelsi was directing that question mostly at Gabriella. Taylor was in that class with them too, but she had missed sixth period that day because there had been an ASB meeting and she was in fact the student body president. (So since people had voted for her to be president, they couldn't hate her and her friends, right? Right? Unless it was the bribery that had won her classmates over then...)

"Yeah, her," Gabriella mumbled, feeling stupid as she had a flashback of the beginning of sixth period. "It wasn't my fault that I forgot, I had a momentary brain lapse."

"Then why'd you speak at all?" Martha laughed. Kelsi had breifly told her this story earlier when they were changing in the locker room.

"I don't really know," the latina shrugged, "I guess I just felt somewhat bad for her since she seemed oddly mute when Mr. Ensley was demanding to know her name. She didn't know _what _to say, and Mr. Ensley's kind of scary."

"What _is _her name anyway?" Taylor wondered. She, too, had forgotten. All she could remember was that it was some unusual, yet cool sounding name that she'd heard Ms. Darbus call her once in first period.

"Uh....Sharpay, I remember now!" Gabriella smiled, wanting to give herself a pat on the back for remembering it this time. She had never been very good with names.

"Oh, right. That's what it was," Taylor muttered more so to herself than anyone else, and then added "she's pretty. Really quiet though. You couldn't even tell she was there in homeroom unless you did a double take."

"Truth be told, I didn't even notice her in homeroom until she came back for her textbook right before second when I was begging Ms. Darbus for my phone back," Gabriella admitted. "But you're right, she's pretty," she laughed, "I almost feel like asking her what shampoo she uses!"

"But you're hair looks great, Gabs," Kelsi told her. "I don't get why you're always complaining about it."

"Thanks Kels, but you don't know the hassle I go through with it every morning," Gabriella frowned, tugging at a loose strand of hair that had not made it up into her pony tail. She tried to keep her hair out of her face for dance.

"Then I bet Sharpay does too," Taylor pointed out. "I mean, don't all of us girls?"

"Maybe. But it looks more like she looks in the mirror after doing her hair everyday and goes '**_THAT was easy!_**" Gabriella laughed, mocking that dumb easy button of Mr. Ensley's. Her friend's laughed too, since she'd immitated it in the perfect sounding voice. Martha had Mr. Ensley fifth period.

"Wow, you sounded exactly like it! How'd you do that?" Kelsi laughed.

"I don't know," Gabriella grinned, "It was...._easy_."

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

_Gossip, clothes, cell phones, hair talk, and imitating weird teachers and the strange things about them. Makes for a fun conversation, doesn't it? xD_

_By the way, those Easy buttons do really exist. Actually, my old English teacher had one. He used to push it for everything! So I guess the credit there goes to Mr. W....he was pretty much my inspiration for how I wanted Mr. Ensley be like. The same immature personality, too._

_About the skirt thing. I hear a lottt of things about the Mormon religion and I'm not exactly sure which are real and which are just rumors, but one of the things I heard was they're not allowed to wear short skirts. But yeah, I don't know if that's true but I hope I'm not offending anyone by making it true in this story. I'm not assuming anything though._

_See that Review Story/Chapter button down there? -pokes- go on and push it. :) You know you want too!_

_-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx_


	4. Three: Vira's

**So, Gabriella and Sharpay actually talk in this chapter. But unless you think back to the prologue, you might be confused by some stuff because it kind of sort of picks up from there?**

**Disclaimer: In addition to High School Musical, I also don't own The BLADE Academy in Albuquerque, NM.**

* * *

Her

_**Chapter Three: Vira's**_

"**_S_**harpay, did you wake up your brother?" Derby Evans asked her daughter from her place at the kitchen table.

"No, I didn't know I was supposed to." Sharpay replied as she continued to pour her cereal.

"Well, you're not," Derby said, "I'm just worried because he's not down here yet and you two should be leaving in less than fifteen minutes," she explained, glancing at the microwave which displayed the time, before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Okay," the blonde girl said, closing the box of Frosted Mini Wheats and sliding it into the pantry. "I'll go get him," she said, leaving the kitchen.

"Ryan?" Sharpay asked, knocking on her twins bedroom door. When there was no reply, she sighed and pushed the door open, only to find her _dear sweet_ brother still sound asleep in his bed.

"Get up, you dork!" she laughed, picking up a pillow that had fallen on the carpeted floor and throwing it at his head. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"Shar?" Ryan yawned. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to take a shower. You have less than fifteen minutes," Sharpay informed him. This seemed to catch his attention, because his blue eyes widened and he tumbled heavily out of bed and onto the floor.

"Oh crap, Shar! Why didn't you wake me earlier!?" he demanded frantically from his spot on the ground.

"Hey don't blame me because you forgot to set your alarm clock!"

"Well, I do remember slapping the snooze button at least four times," he mumbled, squirming to his feet and disappearing into his bathroom- ready to go take the fastest shower of his life. _Someone_ wasn't going to have time for breakfast today. A guy like Ryan usually needed at the _very,very_ least, a good half hour or more to get ready.

Sharpay chuckled, shaking her head as she exited his room and went back downstairs to the kitchen. She was ready as ever for her second day of school. Yesterday hadn't gone as bad as she'd thought it would- she'd made a few friends, and was hoping to make a few more...especially maybe that one person in particular.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Hi Sharpay!"

the sudden voice made her jump, which caused her to bang her head on the roof of her locker.

"Ow..." she moaned, rubbing her head and slowly turning. She forced a welcoming smile at the familiar face.

"Hi, Zeke," she greeted through a clenched jaw, the fake smile still present. "What brings you over here...to my locker?" she spoke slowly.

"You of course," the teenage boy answered. "I just wanted to say good morning, and...sorry for startling you...again."

"It's fine. Morning." Sharpay said, turning back to her locker, wondering if Zeke was going to be there to scare the living crap out of her like that every single day. She certainly hoped not...I mean, he was cute and everything but she just...wasn't all that interested, and it was pretty obvious that he _was_.

"So what did you think of Ensley and Bauman yesterday? I didn't get a chance to catch up with you after class- it's like you just ran out of there the minute the bell rang," Zeke joked, having no way of knowing that that's exactly what Sharpay had done.

"Oh, did I? Guess I just don't like to wait around much," she replied with a shrug, her back still turned to him as she worked on grabbing her things for first period. "But um yeah...their class was ok, I guess."

"Yeah, if you like insane teachers with stupid buttons, then sure...they're fine," he laughed as Sharpay closed her locker and turned back to face him. They stood there awkwardly, each trying to think of something to say, with no success. Then thankfully, sparing them more awkward silence, Sharpay saw another familar looking person walk by over Zeke's shoulder.

"Hey um, if you don't mind, I think I'm just gonna go catch up with my friend over there..." she said. He turned around to see who she was talking about, but whoever it was had probably already walked away already.

"Who-" he started when he turned back to her, but she quickly cut him off with "Okay guess I'll see you later then bye!" and rushed off quickly, leaving him staring after her in wonderment.

"Hi, Emma." Sharpay greeted the fellow blonde as she caught up with her in the hallway. Her new friend as of yesterday turned to her with a smile.

"Oh, hey Sharpay. What's up?" she asked as they continued on down the hall.

"Not much...just got here a few minutes ago. You?"

"Same." Emma nodded.

"So...where're you headed? Our first class is that way..." Sharpay said, gesturing behind them in the opposite direction they were going.

"Oh, yeah I know," the other girl said. "I'm actually going to the library. I have to check out a history text for later on 'cause I kind of lost mine," she explained, muttering the last part unhappily.

"Oh no. When did you loose it?"

"Sometime last week," Emma admitted with a giggle. "Up until yesterday I managed to get away sharing with this quiet nerdy kid that sits next to me," she told Sharpay. "My teacher totally freaked out when he caught me and I had to 'fess up and tell him I lost it. He said I owed thirty bucks to the school for that text book, and that I could check out a potential replacement one in the library."

"That sucks..." Sharpay offered her support. "I'm sorry."

"Tell me about it. I have better things to spend my hard earned money on than boring history books," Emma said with an eye roll. "But I guess I' should've 'been more responsible'," she said- using finger quotes around the last three words, as that's exactly what her teacher had said to her.

"Hard earned? So you have a job?"

"Yeah, it's at this little cosmetics shop in the mall. Lea works there too," she said, "her older sister's best friend Vira owns the place. It's pretty cool, actually. We get tons of discounts there, and sometimes, when Vira's in a good mood, we get things for free!"

"Does Jackie work with you guys, too?" Sharpay asked, wondering why only two out of three of their circle was a part of this.

"She works the cashier at Jamba Juice, in the mall food court. So the three of us usually hang out at the mall after our shifts are over," Emma explained as they reached the library and she pushed the door open.

"Interesting.." Sharpay commented. "Whats the place you work at called?"

"Vira's." Emma chuckled. "Very original, huh?" she said sarcastically.

"Haha yeah, must've taken a long time for her to come up with that name." Sharpay replied with equal sarcasm.

"Yeah, hey, you know what would be cool?" Emma asked, "I just thought of it!" she said with an excited gleam in her eye.

"No, what?" Sharpay asked carefully.

"I don't know if you'd be interested, but I'm sure Lea could get Vira to give you a job there with us, if you wanted?" she offered kindly. "Unless you're already interested in working at some other place, I mean. I just thought that maybe it'd be fun for you too-"

"I think that would be awesome," Sharpay interrupted with a smile. Emma had been nothing but nice to her since they'd met yesterday. She was so thankful to have found such a kind friend like her so quickly. Besides, she really did think it would be cool to have a little after school job or something of that sort, even if her step dad was pretty, well...loaded with cash due to his country club ownership anyway. But she'd rather work for her own money- and it would give her something to do instead of sit home bored everyday, so why not?

"Really? Great! I'll talk to Lea at lunch about it then. Do you still want to sit with us again today? Because you're welcome too, if you want. Unless you already met some other people you want to sit with, in which case is totally cool because I don't want you to feel forced into-"

"I dont have any problem hanging out with you guys," Sharpay chuckled. "Just as long as you don't."

"Oh of course not," Emma said. "It's totally fine."

"Okay, so...you were gonna get your history book?" Sharpay reminded her, changing the subject. Emma nodded.

"Yeah, and I guess while we're in here we might as well also check out ones for that book report Ms. Darbus was talking to us about yesterday."

"Oh, was she?" Sharpay asked with a thoughtful frown. "I don't remember..."

That's when she realized that she probably didn't remember because her mind had been too pre occupied with thoughts of Gabriella all throughout most of first period yesterday, and she'd probably accidentally tuned out the teacher without even realizing it. Of course, there was no way in hell she was ever going to inform Emma of that.

"Ha, I'm honestly surprised that_ I_ _do_ remember, nobody ever really pays attention in that class." Emma said, walking over to a row of books. It didn't take too long for her to find the right one she needed for her history class.

"Did she say what kind of book or how long it had to be?" Sharpay asked then, referring to their English/Lit teacher.

"Hm, I think it was at least 250 pages or something like that.." Emma recalled.

"Oh, that shouldn't be hard then." Sharpay said, scanning over another row of books with her eyes.

"Do you like to read?" Emma asked, turning her attention to some other ones on the row next to the one Sharpay was looking at.

"Sometimes," the new girl shrugged. "It depends on the book, I guess."

"Have you read Twilight?"

"Duh, who hasn't?!" Sharpay giggled. "Grades ranging back as far as like, fourth graders are even reading that or have already."

"Seriously!" Emma agreed, giggling as well. "Hm, you think I should do my report on that one?" she asked.

"I don't know," Sharpay said, biting her lip. "I mean, I suppose you could. But since it's such a popular book, a lot of other people might be doing it too, y'know? Maybe we should both pick something completely different so we won't be turning in basically the same ol' report as everyone else?"

"Good point," Emma sighed, moving farther along down the aisle to check out another shelf full of novels. Just then, two figures rounded the corner from the next aisle over and entered the one Emma and Sharpay currently were in, making Sharpay's chocolate eyes widen slightly as she almost dropped the book she'd pulled out of a shelf that was in her hands. Not because she was startled by the sudden additions to the aisle her and her friend were in, but because of just who one of those additions were.

"I'm just saying Tay, I think it would be really cool to at least_ mention_ it to Andie, and I don't understand why you're totally against it!"

"Ugh, you just don't get it, Gab." Taylor rolled her eyes, carelessly yanking a random book out of a shelf and thumbling through it.

"Exactly! I don't! So could you _please _explain to me what in the world your issue is?" Gabriella practically begged, her voice louder than what was probably acceptable for a library.

"Um, excuse me? This is a _library_ and some of us are trying to concentrate here!" Emma suddenly interrupted their conversation, holding up a book to show that she was "concentrating". (Or more like eavesdropping at this point.)

"I'm sorry, Em-ma, is it?"

"Yes, _Tay-lor_, it _is_ and you should know that by now considering I've been going to your school since _kindergarten_," Emma snapped.

"Well then, _Em-ma_. I'm sorry but I'm trying to explain to my friend here that _the BLADE Academy_ would not be interested in us," Taylor said, narrowing her eyes at Gabriella before shifting her hardened gaze back to Emma.

"Like _heck_, they won't Taylor. We'll never know unless we try. I think it's worth at least breifly mentioning it to Andie," Gabriella exclaimed.

Sharpay looked around expectantly, surprised that a librarian hadn't come 'round to break up this little controversy yet.

"Oh come on, you know how Drea is! She'll tell you she'll look into it and do nothing about it. Remember when you s_uggested_ that we take part in that competition at West High earlier in the year?" Taylor pointed out. "It never happened!"

Aundrea, ('_on-drey-a'_) Andie or Drea for short, was their school dance team coach that could be pretty flaky at times. She was a twenty two year old college student with long black hair, soft porcelain skin and striking blue eyes. She was basically one of those grade A bitches that was beautiful and damn straight knew it. Not to mention the fact that her coaching job was just some college project she was doing, and she'd basically just told the team earlier in the year that they were nothing more to her than her little experimental test tubes. (I _did_ say _basically_!)

With any luck, she'd be gone and done with her stupid project- whatever it was, by next year- Gabriella and Taylor's senior year. She'd started college a year later than most people.

Drea's best friend Kira Moore- an exact clone of her, yet a bit more of a wannabe, had been personally invited by Drea herself to help her out with her 'experiment'...and to keep track of the forty girls on the team that she said she obviously could not handle by herself in any way, shape, or form.

The thing was, neither of them were the best coaches in the world. In fact, they might even have been close to two of the worst. Kira flat out could not dance, and Andie seemed to be too disgusted with all the high school girls and too into herself to even seem to really care all that much. But Gabriella still loved dance way to much to even consider quitting, no matter how bad the 'twin bimbos' were. So instead of complaining and moping about the two suckish coaches, she always tried to make the best of it by being enthusiastic and optimistic. (Which often times came off as annoying to other people, not like she knew that though.)

So now, she had this new idea that maybe they could somehow hire a couple of dance coaches from The Blade dance Academy to come and teach the East High dance team some kind of hip-hop routine. Hip-hop was what Andie and Kira were the worst at, so the girls on the team had been mostly taught just a couple of jazz and lyrical routines, and Gabriella really wanted to try something new. Not that she didn' t enjoy jazz and lyrical, but it was time for a chance in her opinion. She wanted to be taught something fun, fast, and upbeat. Hip-hop was exactly that.

But Taylor McKessie, her own best friend in the entire world, was not supporting her idea for whatever reason, and it was....well, basically it was pissing her off, but she couldn't say that it was pissing her off since she had a strict no-cursing policy. (Well it wasn't really her personal choice, she didn't really have one.)

"Well that was then and this is now, Taylor! This is an oppourtunity that would help Andie to improve with her dancing too, since hip hop isn't what she's best at. So I think she'd take this more seriously. Why are you so negative about this?" Gabriella asked in frustration.

"Because there _is _no opportunity, Gabriella!" Taylor exclaimed, walking further along down the aisle and picking out another random book, Emma fuming with the anger of being ignored, and Sharpay, completely interested in their conversation but all the while pretending not to listen as she forced herself to turn away and hold a book in front of her face.

"Um, hi, remember me?! The girl whose trying to concentrate?!" Emma snapped. "You know so I can get good grades for college and whatnot? Something that is a bit more important than you people leaping and jumping across dance floors just for the fun of it?!"

"-They're a very complex dance school, I honestly don't think they're going to waste their time on some mediocre dance squad with two coaches who only teach us routines with half-ass effort anyway." Taylor continued telling Gabriella, this time ignoring Emma completely.

"Mediocre?! So now we're mediocre?!" Gabriella exclaimed, ignoring Taylor's usage of the word "ass."

"Oh don't take offense to it, Gabriella. I'm on it too. But the difference between you and I is that I'm actually accepting the fact that we pretty much suck."

"Why accept it when we can change it? If Andie goes through with my idea, we won't, "_suck"_ anymore." Gabriella pointed out.

"Fine Gabriella. Do whatever you want with your idea, don't let me stop you, but at least consider what I said." Taylor said, about ready to walk away when Gabriella pulled her back.

"Why would I consider that opinion when all you did was bash our team and completely go against me on this?!"

"Because I'm your best friend and also the student body president, I'm just saying what I think is right."

"Yeah, that's what you think, so be prepared to be proven wrong, Taylor." Gabriella said and stormed away, not even throwing one last glance back at her, Emma, or Sharpay before stomping angrily out of the aisle. Taylor scoffed loudly even though she was already gone before exiting the aisle herself, leaving the two blondes alone once again.

"Well that was interesting." Sharpay commented to Emma after a few moment of silence.

"Those two get in fights every two weeks. They're like a freaking old married couple." Emma said with an eye roll and Sharpay, for whatever reason, felt an instant pang of jealousy at the word "couple".

_Taylor and Gabriella fight like an old married couple_. She didn't know what that sentence bothered her so much.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"The whole school knows when Gabriella and Taylor get in a fight. It's like World War II all over again everytime. But it's weird because they make up like three days later."

"I thought they were supposed to be "perfect and innocent" or whatever, though." Sharpay said nonchalantly.

"The act like it, but believe me, they're _not_." Emma said. "Especially Taylor."

"Ok?" Sharpay said uncertainly, deciding to change the subject. "So were my ears just playing tricks on me, or did Taylor said The Blade Academy?"

"I don't know, I was too busy pondering over the thought of whacking her in the back of the head with a book. But I think that's what she said. Why?"

_Interesting_, Sharpay thought. The name of that dance school rang a bell. She was positive she'd heard of it before...which was odd, considering she'd just moved here recently, and wasn't a dancer at all. Maybe Vance had mentioned it before? Yeah, that had to be it. But why would he? She didn't remember why a grown man would be talking about some dance school. But she was almost positive she'd heard about it from him once before. Hm. Maybe she'd find out more later.

"No reason." She mumbled, knowing that until she found out when and why she'd heard that from her step-dad, it would be bothering the crap out of her all day. Gosh. She hated it when things like that happened!

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Great news!" Lea ran up to Sharpay later that day, around five minutes after school ended, actually.

"What?" Sharpay asked, she was standing at her locker, just about ready to close it, find Ryan, and leave.

"I called Kara just now!" Lea exclaimed cheerfully.

"That's wonderful, Lea! But Uh...whose Kara?" Sharpay asked with a confused giggle at Lea's excitement.

"My sister. She gave me Vira's number, so I called her too!"

"Haha, okay?" Sharpay said uncertainly. She knew who Vira was...the owner of that cosmetics shop where Lea and Emma worked, as she recalled. As promised, Emma had talked to Lea at lunch about possibly hooking up Sharpay with a job there as well. Lea, just as enthusastic, said she'd call later. Sharpay just didn't think later meant the literal minute school was over.

"She said you could have a job if you wanted. Don't even need an interview or anything. Just as long as you're not a druggie or alcoholic, and you take showers, she says that she's been looking for some more help anyways and the job is yours."

"Darn, there goes my hidden bottle of vodka." Sharpay joked. "And it took me so long to sneak from my parents." she laughed as Lea did.

"Anyway, thanks a lot for doing this for me." Sharpay said kindly. "And thank Vira for me too, did she specify when she would like me to start?"

"She said she'd appreciate it if you could start as soon as possible. I guess her boyfriend proposed last week and she's taking some time off to plan her wedding for this summer or something." Lea explained.

"That soon, huh?" Sharpay asked, seeing as the summer was just a few short months away. Lea nodded.

"Well, I'm afraid the soonest I can start will probably be sometime next week...since my mom, and brother and I are still pretty new in town there's still a lot of unpacking that needs to be done, and my mother's insisting that I come straight home after school everyday, grab a snack, do my homework, and start on the unpacking. And according to her, we should be completely finished by next week."

"That's fine, I think Vira was just hoping it wouldn't be like in a month or something. So sometime next week is good." Lea told her, "I mean it's not like we get people stampeding in in groups of twenty everyday anyways, so we're not totally busy." She laughed.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

**Sometime next week...**

"Hey, when exactly did Ms. Darbus say that one book report is due?" Sharpay asked Emma worriedly.

"I don't remember...I don't even think she did say, actually." Emma replied. "But I'm guessing within the next month, so don't worry, there's still time."

"Okay, I'm just kind of nervous because I still haven't even picked out a book yet."

"Me either." Emma said, rolling over on her stomach on the bed to read her magazine. It was Thursday, after school, and exactly one week and one day after Sharpay had started her first day at East High. The two of them were just hanging out at Emma's place for a few minutes before heading to the mall for work- which, for Sharpay, would be her first day since the unpacking for her had finally come to closure yesterday.

"We didn't have that much time in the library last week since it was right before school, and it didn't really help that Mother Theresa and class president Obama were in there having a bitch fight with each other when we were trying to concentrate."

"You _really_ don't like them at all, do you?" Sharpay asked, deeply surprised and confused as to why in the world Emma, along with Jackie and Lea, had such a big problem with Gabriella, Taylor, and the rest of their friends. Sharpay had been at the school for only a few days and she'd heard more complaints about those girls than she could count. It was annoying, no doubt, especially when she herself _did_ like them. Or, one of them at least.

"It's not that, they're just annoying sometimes."

Sharpay guessed that now probably wouldn't be a good time to tell her that she'd be absent from what had become her usual lunch table with her, Jackie, and Lea tomorrow to go and sit with those supposedly annoying people instead.

"But do you really even talk to them that much even?"

"No, and I don't plan on it."

"I just don't understand why you dislike them so much."

"Look, it's a long story, Sharpay." Emma said mysteriously.

"Tell me it."

"I can't right now."

"Why not?!" Sharpay demanded.

"Because," Emma said, pointing to her bedside clock which read **3:14** "Our shift starts in sixteen minutes, and we should be leaving now if we plan on making it on time."

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Honestly, three of us really don't need to be standing here at the cash register, so you two get your butts out of here and start asking people if they need help finding anything!" Lea snapped at Emma and Sharpay, faking annoyance.

"And honestly, I'm still trying to figure out where the heck things are myself!" Sharpay exclaimed. "Seriously this place is like, twice the size of any Bath and Body Works I've ever been too! Emma, as I recall, you called this place a 'little' cosmetics shop! If this is little, I'd hate to see your perspective of big."

Emma just smiled. "I meant little as in, one of a kind in this particular mall and nobody else in the world other than residents /slash/ shopaholics of and in Albuquerque know about it." She answered sweetly.

"Whatever, can I just please handle the cash register, Lea?" Sharpay asked, turning her attention to the redhead. "I worked at a clothing store back in Indiana as a casheir, so I think I can do it here, especially since I'm not quite familiar with anything in this store yet."

"Sure, I'll go to the other one since there's two. But Emma, go help customers before I fire you." Lea told her best friend with a smirk. "I'm authorized by Vira to do that."

"You wouldn't really do that, would you?" Sharpay asked almost stupidly.

"Please, you know how many times she's "threatened" to fire me?" Emma laughed. "She's just joking...or she better be."

"Yeah, yeah. Just go." Lea said, willing her away, and she finally went. "And now we stand here and look pretty." Lea told Sharpay, who chuckled. "That won't be too hard for me." she replied jokingly.

"Yeah, whatever, you're beautiful. Just do your job."

"Haha okay." Sharpay said with a smile, for some reason feeling all giggly and hyper.

Fifteen minutes later, she'd rang up a total of 4 customers with ease and was feeling pretty confident about not screwing up. She had just finished telling her fifth- a girl who looked about 13 or 14, on how the pink shade of lipgloss she was buying just so happened to be her favorite color, when she heard an already familiar voice laugh and say "Of course it is. No surprise there."

Sharpay felt goose bumps suddenly prickle all over her arms and legs as she slowly looked up, only to make eye contact with none other than Gabriella Montez herself.

"H-hi, Gabriella." She said, feeling butterflies in her stomach at the kind smile she latina sent her, and she offered back a shy one. How freaking coincidental that she was here...right in front of her face on her first day of work.

"Have a nice day." She quickly told the 13 or 14 year old girl, who nodded and answered "Thanks, you too," before walking away with her brand new lipgloss and the friend she was with.

"You work here?" Gabriella asked her, sounding surprised.

"Yeah um...I'm friends with the owner's best friend's sister..."

"Lea?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"She goes to our school, Sharpay. And I come in here a lot. I just think this store is so cute and amazing." Gabriella answered.

_Kind of like what I think of you? Wait...what am I thinking!? _Sharpay thought. _Snap out of it, Evans!_

"I try to come here whenever I can to check out any new deals. And since my dance practice was cancelled today after school, now is really she perfect time." Gabriella continued, not knowing why she was telling Sharpay all of this, but not really caring that she was probably giving her a boring overshare and not knowing that Sharpay really really just didn't mind her talking to her about this...about anything.

"Hm well I'm not very clued in on any deals and stuff yet...today's my first day on the job. But I think Lea would've told me if there was any." Sharpay said, feeling it surprisngly easy again to talk to her.

"Hey Sharpay I just checked the back and saw that all these new cases of eyeshadow just came in. Would you mind- Oh, hi Gabriella." Lea greeted Gabriella halfheartedly, emerging from the back room behind the counter/cash registers.

"Hi." Gabriella answered. "I didn't know you two were friends?"

_That could either be because you pretty much ignore everyone but the mormon asses and McKessie, or because she's kind of new? Which makes me think: why are you even talking to us now? _Lea thought, but instead just shrugged in response while setting the cardboard box containing the new eyeshadow down on the white counter.

"Lea where's the mop? Some kid came in with his mother and dropped his ice cream cone all over the floor in the front of the store." Emma said, popping her head out of the back room as well and choosing to ignore Gabriella's very existance when she noticed her standing there.

"Did you check with all the cleaning supplies?" Lea asked her friend.

"Where do you think I've _been_ looking?" Emma answered impatiently.

"Well, I'd better get going...I'm supposed to be meeting Taylor and Kelsi in the food court. But hey, I think first I'm going to buy one of those pink lip glosses." Gabriella smiled at Sharpay and picked out the same lipgloss that 13 or 14 year old girl had bought from one of the tubs ofmany lipglosses at the front counter and handed it to Sharpay to ring up.

"So, you're still sitting with us tomorrow at lunch, right?" Gabriella asked her, as if pretending that Lea and Emma were_ not_ staring in sudden shock at her and Sharpay, who at that moment, had completely forgotten that Lea and Emma were really even _there _when Gabriella had asked her that question just now and answered "Uh huh," while trying not to sound too eager, though she felt like jumping up and down and screaming"YES."

"Cool," Gabriella smiled.

"Yeah," she smiled back. "Anyway that's um.. $5.50." She said and Gabriella reached into her purse and handed her a credit card.

"See you tomorrow," she said once her gloss was all paid for and she had her card back. She twisted the cap off the lipgloss and slowly (slower than most people take to put on lipgloss) applied a fresh shiny layer of it to her lips. "Mm. Good lipgloss!" she giggled when she was finally done. Sharpay swallowed nervously.

_Its like she wants me to stare or something!_

"Yeah...s-see you." She said shakily, her throat feeling dry. Gabriella offered one last smile before turning and walking towards the entrance of the store to leave.

"Um...when were you planning on telling us you were suddenly best friends forever with _her_?!" Emma demanded icily once the brunette was out of hearing range, catching Sharpay off guard.

_Ohh craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!_

She'd completely forgotten she was there.

And as Sharpay slowly turned to face her two friends to see their reactions to what had just happened, anyone would have to be blind or stupid to not know that the looks on their faces were obviously ones of dissapproval. Maybe there was some confusion there, but definitley dissapproval.

* * *

_So I have this feeling that I totally and completely blew the ending. I'm not very happy with this chapter but hopefully the next one will be better and more eventful? lol. I also feel bad about my serious lack of Troy! I really need to fit him in somwhere :P_

_But anyways since you guys are so nice I know you'll (hopefully) review anyway...even if I DID take forever and a day to update. :( I'm really sorry about that!!!_

_-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx_


	5. AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey guys,

Well, I finished chapter four yesterday but when I uploaded the document to this website, somehow this BITCH ASS STUPID MOTHER EFFER website WIPED OUT half the f*cking chapter! and it wouldn't even add it to the story yesterday-some stupid "Error::::" message kept popping up everytime I tried to post it or even view the damn document. Finally, after checking to see if it would work constantly, I emailed those stupid "tech support" idiots about it. Anyways, now when it's finally "fixed", it wipes out the wholeeeee ending/middle parts. It's weird because on whats supposed to be the finished document says it has 6727 or something words but when I copied and pasted all of that to another document it says 5284 words?? WTF! Where are the forgotton 1300 words?!!!!

Anyway, I didn't realize this problem until I already posted what was supposed to be the FINISHED chapter and clicked the live preview button, so I'm really mad or more like FREAKIN PISSED OFF BEYOND BELIEF! right now. God, fanfiction is such a **BITCHHHHHHHHHH**.

Anyways, now I have to retype about half the fourth chapter, so sorry that I probably made you guys think there was another chapter to be uploaded today. It sucks having to type half the information over again, but I'll try to get it up within the next few days. :/

I should go give tech support a piece of my mind.......................again. (or maybe they're doing this to get back at me for yelling at them yesterday! hey its not my fault they can't even manage their own friggin' website!)


	6. Four: The Next Invite

**Disclaimer: nobody on fanfiction owns shaaat. ;P....do they? well I don't, at least.**

**Apologies to:** Ballet dancers. Though it's not a very big deal when that breifly comes up nearing the end of the chapter, I'm still not looking to offend anyone.

* * *

PREVIOUSLY;;

_"Um...when were you planning on telling us you were suddenly best friends forever with her?!" Emma demanded icily once the brunette was out of hearing range, catching Sharpay off guard._

_Ohh craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!_

_She'd completely forgotten she was there._

_And as Sharpay slowly turned to face her two friends to see their reactions to what had just happened, anyone would have to be blind or stupid to not know that the looks on their faces were obviously ones of dissapproval. Maybe there was some confusion there, but definitley dissapproval._

* * *

Her

**_Chapter Four: The Next Invite_**

"_**W**_ell, Emma, that's actually of an overstatement." Sharpay finally answered after several awkward moments of silence. "I hardly even know Gabriella," she finished with a nonchalant shrug, turning back to the cash register.

"Yeah, I'm just a little bit confused here..." Lea said with a slow blink to show her confusion.

"We really don't care if you talk to her," Emma said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. "I just find it odd that if you're friends with her or whatever you didn't tell us whenever we've said something...not so nice about her."

"I already told you- I hardly even know her, and if you don't like her," Sharpay shrugged, "you don't have too. Nothing I say is going to change that."

"Hardly even know her...then what's this about having lunch with her and the Jesus freaks?"

"Emma!" Lea gasped, so maybe she and her friends weren't as heavy-religious as Gabriella and the rest of them claimed to be. And maybe Lea didn't really like them much either. But calling them "Jesus_ freaks_" was just rude. As if loving the lord made you a psychopath or something.

"What? Don't '_Emma_' me," The blonde snapped, turning to Lea. "I'm just wondering."

"Yeah, but for one thing that's really none of your business." Lea told her, even though she was deeply curious herself. It really wasn't their business, because while they were on the topic of hardly knowing people...they had only known Sharpay for a week themselves- it's not like she owed them her life or anything close. She was free to have whatever friends and sit with whoever she wanted, and they shouldn't have room to say anything about it.

"I _said_ I was just _wondering_, Lea." Emma huffed.

"And _I_ said, who cares? It was none-"

"Guys?" Sharpay cut in, stopping them before this went any further. "Chill out. If you really wanna know, I've never talked to Gabriella before sixth period today. She seemed nice and asked if I wanted to sit with her and her friends tomorrow. So see? It's no big deal." She said, shrugging yet again, even if it was kind of a big deal to her. Hel-lo this was Gabriella Montez...Ms. Popular...gorgeous, Gabriella Montez. But it's not like she was going to say that to Emma and Lea, or Jackie later on, for that matter.

"You haven't learned _anything _from what we've told you about that girl, have you." Emma mumbled, making it sound more like a statement rather than a question.

"Honestly Emma...not really, because all you ever did was trash talk her for no reason." Sharpay blurted out, instantly regretting it by the look that appeared on Emma's face moments after she said it, but didn't comment. Avoiding an awkward encounter, Sharpay turned back around and opened the cash register and tried to occupy herself by pretending to count the bills in there- making it look like she was busy doing something, while she was really just awkwardly trying to avoid Emma's stares. She was sure she was staring at her, because she could feel her eyes burning into the back of her head.

"...So I guess we won't be seeing you tomorrow then." Lea said, breaking the tense silence that fell over the three of them after what Sharpay had pointed out. Emma was now staring down at and nervously playing with her name tag that hung around her neck on a cloth strap- now wanting to look anywhere but at Sharpay.

"Um...I'll be around later, if you guys wanna hang out or something." Sharpay replied, still thumbing through all the fives in the register.

"Well...maybe we'll catch you in the morning. If not we'll just see you here...at work." Lea said, nudging Emma. "Sound good, Emma?"

"Sure." Her friend responded in a barely audible mumble, still messing with her nametag.

"....................................................................................................Anyways, you were uh...looking for a mop, right?" Lea asked after another long while of awkwardly glancing back and forth from Emma to Sharpay- who were both well aware that she was watching them but doing everything to avoid her gaze... and each other's, for that matter, not that they were trying to look at each other anyway.

"Yeah, but it's not back there for some reason." Emma responded in a stiff, almost robotic tone.

"Well, I'll go ask if the store next door has one we can borrow. You two stay here and put all those cases of eyeshadow on the shelves. That icecream spill needs to be cleaned up asap, so I'll 'BRB'." Lea said, making a quick dash for the front of the store.

"Wait Lea! I'll go get the mop, you stay here!" Emma called after her, knowing it would be to weird right now to be alone with Sharpay. But it was too late, Lea was already history.

Momentarily taking her attention away from the cash she was "counting", Sharpay glanced up at Emma breifly- not even lifting her head but just raising her eyes a little. But she quickly looked back down when her fellow blonde turning back around slowly and looked (or more like, glared) at her.

"I'll take care of the eyeshadow, don't bother helping." Emma snapped icily, violently snatching up the cardboard box Lea had earlier set on the counter before stomping away, muttering something like "you need to watch the register anyway," without turning around. Sharpay stared after her in bewilderment, watching dumbfounded as she dissappeared behind a tall rack of different shades of blush, wondering how Emma had went from being so kind and friendly one minute to being so...completely opposite the next.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Is Emma mad at me or something?" Sharpay asked Lea later on that night on the phone. It was sometime around seven PM.

"_I don't know. Why would you think that_?" Lea asked from the other end of the line, though she knew exactly why Sharpay would think that.

"Well, it could either be because of how she didn't say one word to me after the whole thing about Gabriella except for something about keeping an eye on the cash register. Or it could be because she made up the excuse of having a lot of homework and couldn't hang out with us and Jackie in the mall and just totally bailed five seconds after work was over, which brings me to my third reason of her refusing to tell me that herself and leaving it up to you to tell me...and Jackie."

_"Well why would she be mad at you?"_

"Call me crazy, but I think she has some kind of serious beef with Gabriella."

"_None of us really like her, Sharpay_."

"And I'm _still _trying to figure out why."

"_It's a long story._"

"Oh my gosh, why does everyone keep saying that? First Emma, now you. How long can it be?!" Sharpay asked, frustrated. Why did their surpreme dislike of Gabriella have to be such a freaking mystery!?

"_I don't know_." Lea replied, not really knowing what else to say.

"Well what is this novel of a story then? I've got time."

"_Maybe, but I don't. I've got a lot of homework too, and I don't want to start to late. I'll just talk to you tomorrow, okay? Not at lunch though, apparently."_

"But-"

"_Later, okay? I really have to go. See you tomorrow."_

"Lea-"

"_'Night._" Lea said, hanging up before she could get another word in. Sharpay scoffed and stared in shock at her phone, which was now blasting the annoying drone of the empty dial tone.

"_Un._be._liev_able," she muttered, hanging up with a sigh.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

The next morning, Sharpay spotted none other than the infamous Zeke leaning against her locker, obivously waiting for her arrival. She stopped dead in her tracks, wondering what she should do in order to avoid another encounter with him. What was with this guy anyway? Everyday for the last freaking week he'd pop up behind her there, **every**, **single**, **morning**. And in between classes quiet often, too. Ever since her first day, one week and two days ago. And she'd only sometimes managed to find an excuse to get away from him. But this time, he'd beat her to her locker. She figured he was probably there before her because she got there later than usual today- since she and Ryan had stopped at a Starbucks drivethrough just a few blocks away on the way to school this morning.

_Great, _she thought sarcastically with an eyeroll. _Way to go Sharpay, only your second week here and you've already managed to find yourself a stalker._

Groaning, she turned around to go escape to the girl's restroom at the other end of the hall for a few minutes, thinking maybe he'd be gone by the time she came back to her locker if she just took a couple of minutes to make sure her make up was perfect and try to fix up her windblown hair- it had been rather windy that morning in the parking lot. Yes, she worried way too much about her physical appearance. It really was like a terrible OCD. It wasn't as though she enjoyed staring at herself in mirrors or anything, she just seemed to be more than just a little self conscious for some reason. She wasn't one of those people who went around whining and saying "I'm so uglyyyy!" all the time, because she knew that she wasn't 'ugly'....but she found it hard sometimes to actually be able to call herself 'pretty'.

Before she could even make it as far as one step to the restroom, Sharpay turned around so quickly that she hadn't really been paying much attention to what she was doing, and she collided with someone hard, spilling her drink all over both herself and the other person.

"Holy shit!" A deep, male voice gasped, and she looked up, finding herself staring at the angry face of the guy she'd heard Zeke refer to as Troy last week in Mr. Ensley and Ms. Bauman's class.

But he wasn't looking at her, he was to busy glaring down at his caramel mocha-stained Redhawks jacket.

"Oh my god...I'm so sorry!" Sharpay stammered quickly, not realizng that her own coffee-soaked white sweater was now very much see through.

"I fucking swear to god-" the blue eyed boy exclaimed angrily, finally looking (glaring) at her. But he stopped short and his smirked instead of yelling at her when he caught sight of her clothing.

"I mean uh...no problem. I can just get it dry cleaned." He said with a wink, staring at the light material of the sweater that was clinging to her body. Wrinkling her eyebrows, Sharpay followed his gaze down to where he was looking, confused at his sudden change of moods, and her face flushed instantly red with embarassment when she finally noticed that her bra was clearly visible through her all-white attire.

"Oh my-!" She exclaimed, not getting as far as "god" before quickly covering her chest as best as she could with her arms, forgetting about the rest of her spilled coffee that was in a huge brown slippery _splat_ all over the floor, and shoving passed Troy to make a beline for the girl's restroom. She heard him laugh after her.

Sharpay quickly burst into the bathroom and ran over to the mirror above the row of sinks to inspect just how bad the damage was, and instantly felt like crying.

Her entire upper body was totally exposed...and that guy...that loud, Troy guy...had seen it all.

And assuming that he'd probably find it just oh so hilarious to mention it to all his friends, just made her want to burst into tears even more.

_Calm down Sharpay, you can get this out...you can do this. _She told herself, taking a short breath and turning on the cold water faucet, grabbing a bundle of brown paper towels and running them under the sink. She began scrubbing frantically away at her messy sweater, desperatley trying to rid it of the stupid brown coffee stain (or more like huge brown coffee blotch), and after scrubbing hard for five long minutes- even when she added soap, had very little luck. The result of five minute hardcore scrubbing was just a soapy, even more wet, slightly lighter shade of brown mess.

"Damnit to hell!" Sharpay exclaimed exasperatedly, slamming her wet ball of used paper towels into the garbage bin and grabbing a new handful. She wet the new towels, turned off the cold water and turned on the warm- wondering if she would have more success using the warm water since the cold was clearly not working out. Giving up after scrubbing for another hard five minutes, she tossed those used towels into the trash can as well and stared in defeat at her screwed up soapy, soaked sweater in the mirror, realizing and concluding that there was no hope for it's surivial.

And that's when she burst into tears.

She knew it was silly to be crying over something like this. But she couldn't imagine walking around looking like this messed up brown and white, wet...._blah_ all day. All she'd done in trying to fix it was made it soapy and more wet. It hadn't really helped much at all, and she didn't know what to do. It didn't really help either that it was that current female-only time of the month, and boy did she have mood swings everytime.

"Woah...are you OK?"

A voice suddenly made her jump a few minutes later. She whirled around, frantically wiping tears from her eyes with her hands, knowing that her face was probably now red and blotchy and her make up was probably also screwed up to make matters worse. She was just a total wreck right now.

"I-I..." she started, but found that she couldn't find the works to speak. She covered her face and turned away from the worried, confused girl who'd entered the bathroom, just wanting to die at this moment where she didn't care how overly dramatic she was being.

"Wait...you're Sharpay, right?" Kelsi Neilson realized, taking a few steps closer to her. And all Sharpay could do was nod into her hands, her shoulder's shaking every couple of moments as the random after shocks of a sob-fest settled in on her.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" Kelsi asked worriedly, not knowing what she should do, but seeing for herself that this poor girl was not alright at all. She rushed over to her now and placed a comforting hand on her back, forgetting the fact that she'd never spoken with this girl before until now. But she couldn't help it. She was a caring person...even for strangers sometimes. And Sharpay wasn't totally strange. One of her best friends- Gabriella, had informed her actually that this girl would be joining them later today for lunch hour.

Kelsi waited for a couple of minutes while Sharpay's after-shocks calmed down a bit, allowing the previously-sobbing girl to finally speak.

"I...spilled...my c-coffee...everywhere..th-this m-orning." Sharpay finally told her, removing her hands from her face, crossing her arms over her chest in attempt to hide the evidence, and avoiding Kelsi's wondering eyes.

"I'm guessing it got on you?" Kelsi asked sincerely, knowing that no person would be crying just because they clumsily spilled some coffee on the floor. All Sharpay could do was nod in embarassment. "M-my sweater." She said, hiccuping as another after-shock hit her.

"Mind if I see? Or you don't have to show me if you don't want too."

Sharpay did nothing for a few seconds as she pondered over whether or not she should show Kelsi...this girl who she didn't even know...all she knew was she was one of the Mormon's that hung around with Gabriella and whose birthday it was just last week on her first day at the school.

But deciding she had no other choice, she reluctantly uncrossed her arms- revealing the splotchy brown, soapy mess. She saw Kelsi flinch but then quickly try to hide that she did.

"Wow...that's quite a stain...do you have anything you can change into?" The curly-haired girl asked, and Sharpay shook her head.

"...Okay. Well...hmm...oh you know my friend Gabriella, don't you?"

"Uh..k-kind of." Sharpay answered with a shrug, her heart picking up speed at the mention of Gabriella, but wondering what she had to do with this.

"She'll probably loan you her dance team sweatshirt. I'd let you wear mine but I didn't bring it today and well...you probably wouldn't feel comforable since we don't really know each other. I'm Kelsi, by the way." Kelsi smiled politely.

"Nice to meet you." Sharpay mumbled quietly, not bothering to admit that she didn't really know Gabriella much either, and staring down at the floor- not wanting the other girl to fully see her red splotchy face and bloodshoot eyes. She knew she looked horrible. And right now if she dare to look in the mirror, she just knew it would depress her. So she avoided looking into it.

"So should I call Gabriella, or would you rather just keep this between us? Or do you really think you have a choice?..."

"I don't think I do." Sharpay mumbled again.

"Okay, I'll call her and trust me, she'll be in here with that sweatshirt in two minutes tops. I swear."

"Okay." Sharpay answered, trying to force some kind of thankful smile for Kelsi's kindness but only managing a barely half one, that she knew Kelsi could probably tell was forced. But she couldn't help it. The thought of Gabriella coming in here and seeing her all messed up like this depressed and embarassed her like nothing else could.

_Why do I always have to act so freaking pitiful?_

_Snap out of it Evans, god you're pathetic._

"Here." Kelsi said, grabbing a few paper towels out of the dispenser and handing them too her. Then, "cold water helps the redness go away."

"Thanks." Sharpay said, accepting the towels and running them under the cold water faucet.

_So much for hiding my blotchy cottage cheese face, _she thought, gently rubbing the soaked cold paper towel all over her face as Kelsi took a few steps back to make her phone call. Luckily no one else had walked in yet. It was only a matter of time before...

--

"I'm here. Got the sweatshirt. Hey Kels. Hi, Sharpay. How are you?"

"I'm fine...really...it's not that big of deal." Sharpay answered as Gabriella trudged into the bathroom with her purse, bookbag, another bag which Sharpay assumed was for all her dance stuff, and a red sweatshirt.

"Well, here, lemme see the stain." Gabriella said, and without waiting for Sharpay to say or do anything, she dropped her stuff on the floor and gently pulled her shoulder back so she'd turn and face her.

"Yeah I think you definitley need to put this on..." she said, handing Sharpay the sweatshirt after inspecting her stained white sweater. "You can probably get that stain out though, just spray some kind of... super strong Billy Mays-advertised product on it before throwing it in the wash. What's that stuff called again?" She asked, turning to Kelsi who was leaning over one of the sinks, applying some lipgloss to her mouth.

"Uh...I don't know." Kelsi answered with a shrug, twisting the cap of her lipgloss closed and dropping it into her purse. "Lysonal?"

"You mean Lysol?"

"Whatever. Ha."

"Isn't that a shower stain mildew remover thing?" Sharpay asked.

"Not sure...what's the other one called then?" Gabriella asked either of them who was willing to answer.

"Oxe clean?" Kelsi guessed.

"I think you mean Ox_y_clean...?" the latina corrected.

"Well if you know already then why are you asking me?" Kelsi laughed, taking a brush out of her purse and running it through her hair. Gabriella shrugged and turned back to Sharpay.

"Go change. We'll wait here for you," she said kindly with a smile, and Sharpay couldn't help but smile back. It was hard to believe that just minutes ago she'd been finding it hard to force a half smile and now here she was doing it with so much willing and ease. And right when she was about to say "Thanks, a lot. I really appreciate this," the five minute bell rang. Which meant first period started in well...five minutes.

"Ah snap. I have to go all the way to the 200 building for my first class. So I'd better go right now. I'll see you guys later though. Nice meeting you, Sharpay." Kelsi said upon hearing the bell.

"You too." Sharpay responded and watched as she gave a quick parting hug to Gabriella, a wave to herself, and left the girl's restroom.

"Are you gonna head off to class?" Sharpay asked Gabriella then.

"Well...our class is just right down the hall...so I don't need to go just yet...I'll wait for you if you want. Unless you want me to go-"

"It's fine, I was just wondering." Sharpay smiled, feeling this surge of happiness that Gabriella really seemed like she _wanted_ to stay, and there was no way Sharpay was going to shoo her off.

"Okay, now hurry and change." Gabriella said with a laugh. "Too much stalling!"

"I'm going." Sharpay said, dissappearing inside a stall. She came back out less than a minute later with Gabriella's East High Dance Team sweatshirt on, wondering if she'd get curious looks throughout the course of the day for wearing it- especially since it had _Gabbi _written on the back. But she didn't really care if she did, for the simple fact that it _was_ Gabriella's.

"All good?" Gabriella asked once she emerged from the stall.

"Yeah, and thanks a lot for all the help. I think I should thank Kelsi later too, I can't believe I totally forgot to..." Sharpay said, "but I really appreciate this." She said, stuffing her balled up dirty sweater into her pink school bag.

"Not a problem." Gabriella shrugged, "I guess it's a good thing I had it with me though," she smiled, watching Sharpay take out her makeup bag and began putting on eyeliner, mascara, and foundation on her nose which was slightly red, and she wondered if she'd been crying earlier, but decided not too put her on the spot by asking.

"Yeah, it was. Thanks." Sharpay thanked her again.

"So...if you don't mind my asking, how'd you end up spilling that coffee all over yourself anyways?"

Sharpay inwardly sighed, knowing that what she was about to said would make her sound like a complete ditzy, clumsy, and careless idiot. But she decided to tell her anyways...quiet reluctantly, I might add.

"Well...I was just carrying my coffee this morning and I turned around a bit quickly, I guess. And I...kind of...accidentally ran into someone. It got all over both of us." She admitted.

"Oh no! Who was it?" Gabriella asked eagerly awaiting her answer. High schoolers could reallybe jerks sometimes, and of course no one would be very pleased if someone crashed into them with some caffeinated beverage.

"....I think his name was like, Troy or something."

"Troy Bolton?" Gabriella said. "He must've been really mad, huh?"

"Well...he was...at first." Sharpay said uncertainly, putting her makeup bag back into her purse and turning to face Gabriella. "But then he just kind of smirked and said it was no problem..that he could just get his jacket dry cleaned or something."

"That's weird. I'm sure he was wearing his dumb Redhawks jacket too, huh?"

"Uh...I'm not sure...I think though. Maybe." Sharpay said.

"He's obsessed with the Redhawks. He'd freak if anyone messed up that jacket of his. But he didn't!?" Gabriella asked, as if completely disbelieving her.

"I think he saw through my sweater." Sharpay mumbled, and Gabriella's eyebrows shot up.

"Oh...mmmust be why then." Gabriella said, now understanding what had just perviously been her confusion. "I'm sorry that happened to you." she said sympathetically.

Sharpay shrugged. "I'm hoping to forget it. I hope he will, too."

Gabriella just smiled sadly, not knowing what else to say. Troy...was Troy. He probably wouldn't forget it if he'd seen anything. Anything at all. Because he was just like that. But she didn't tell Sharpay that of course. Why make her feel bad? Instead, she reached over and gave her a friendly and warm, comforting side-hug, and said "I'm sure he will."

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

Sharpay was happy.

That was it...she was just happy, there was no other word to describe her mood. So maybe her morning might not've gotten off to a very good start, and maybe she and Gabriella had walked into class thirty seconds late, and maybe she didn't really get to talk to Gabriella during first period since she didn't sit near her. And maybe also Emma had completely ignored her- not acknowledging her appearance in the slightest when she'd entered the class, but in the end it all (for the most part) worked out fine anyway. Ms. Darbus said she didn't mark anyone tardy unless they were forty five seconds or more late (why can't all teacher's be like that?), Gabriella had walked with Sharpay to their second period class, but then there was still the whole Emma thing that hadn't been resolved.

But one little minority was not going to get her down. She wouldn't allow it to kill her whole mood. Because now she was just_ happy- _see what I mean about the whole mood swing thing?

Now it was lunchtime, and Sharpay was standing with a salad and a coke (not a very good mix, but whatever) in the cafeteria, scanning the room for a few certain someones'.

"Hope you didn't forget my invite." A cheerful voice greeted her from behind, coming up and looping their arm through hers.

"I was just looking for you." Sharpay smiled at Gabriella, who had a small thing of nachos and a bottled water balanced in her other hand and arm that wasn't looped through Sharpay's left. (Which by the way, Sharpay _quite _enjoyed.)

"Our table's this way." Gabriella told her, leading her a few table's over.

"Hey guys, this is Sharpay for anyone who hasn't met her yet." She greeted her friends seated at the table brightly.

"Hey, I'm Taylor." Taylor introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you." Sharpay said, sliding in next to Gabriella as she motioned for her to do.

"Martha," Martha said with a wave, and Sharpay smiled at her politely and repeated "Nice to meet you."

"You already know me," Kelsi said, "but hi, I'm Kelsi anyway." She grinned.

There were a few other's at the table who introduced themselves kindly as well, but Sharpay guessed that Gabriella, Taylor, Kelsi, and Martha were like the main four that hung around with each other the most.

"So where're you from anyways?" Taylor asked after all the introductions had been made.

"Fort Wayne...it's in Indiana." Sharpay told her, popping the top of her coke can and taking sip.

"You just moved here then?" Taylor asked, reaching across the table to snag one of Gabriella's nachos even though she had her own right in front of her- that Martha was picking at, while Kelsi took _her _pizza crust. (Ha, who else's friends do that all the time? :P)

"Well, a couple weeks ago. I started here though last week."

"Yeah, I've seen you around." Taylor nodded, and Sharpay wondered why Emma, Lea, and Jackie had been saying a week ago that this whole group of Mormon pals pretty much "ignored everyone but each other," because that seemed totally untrue by this point. Here _sh_e was having lunch with them. So, no, they _didn't _pretty much ignore everyone but each other.

"What are your electives?" Gabriella asked her.

"Art and photography." Sharpay replied.

"Oh, I had art last semester." Gabriella said. "It's pretty easy to pass."

"Yeah..I've always been into art-sy things, I guess." Sharpay said.

"Are you good at like painting and all that stuff?" Kelsi asked, to which she replied "Yeah..sort of..I guess."

"You're good at photography too?" Taylor asked.

"I...guess..." Sharpay shrugged and chuckled since this was the third time in a row she was saying that.

"Drawing?" Martha pitched in.

"I-"

"guess?" Gabriella finished.

"Yeah, how'd you know I was going to say that?" Sharpay asked, and Gabriella smiled sweetly and answered "I _guess_ed."

"Very funny."

--

Sometime later, it was still lunch period. The five girls were gathered outside in a corner of the football field- right underneath the scoreboard, sitting in a tight little circle and talking about this, that, nothing, and everything. What are friends for, right?

"So what time do you want us to come over tomorrow?" Kelsi, who was sitting on Sharpay's right, using a purple gel pen to draw a star on the back of her hand, asked Gabriella.

"Sometime before five, I guess." The latina shrugged. "Since it takes like an hour to get to the thing." She then turned to Sharpay, who was on her right, sitting clueless as to what they were talking about.

"You should come with us!"

"Well that sounds like fun...or I'm sure it would if I knew what you were talking about." Sharpay laughed, watching Kelsi color in the outline of the five-pointed star. It kind of hurt to be scribbled on so quickly, but she didn't mind.

"It's this showcase thing for all these different dance schools around different parts of the state." Gabriella explained, "before you say "no", don't worry- it's not like some weird ballet stuff that a lot of people wouldn't really be interested in watching. It's more upbeat numbers...the kind of stuff that really keeps your attention...it's all loud and crazy...the kind of stuff I wish _our_ team would at least attempt." She finished, sending Taylor a hardened look when she said that last part. Taylor rolled her eyes and brushed her off.

"Anyway, our whole team is going," Gabriella told Sharpay, ignoring the look she recieved back from her best friend. "But in different cars."

"Only because our lame coaches are too cheap and lazy to rent us a bus for just an hour-long drive for several hours." Taylor muttered dissapprovingly of Andie and Kira.

"Are those two even going?" Martha questioned as Kelsi finished Sharpay's star and motioned for her to turn her palm upright so she could draw something else.

"Not sure. You never know with them." Taylor responded. "But who cares anyway? It'll be good if they're not there to scream at us every five seconds and ruin the whole thing for us anyway. But yeah, Sharpay, you should come with us."

"Us four are meeting up at Gabriella's house and taking her mom's van up to where it's going to be at." Kelsi added just for the heck of it. "Boy, did that take a while of convincing."

"My mom finally trusts me." Gabriella chuckled lightly with a shake of her head. "So, you in?" She asked Sharpay,getting back to the subject.

"Sure, why not?" Sharpay smiled, feeling glad that she was accepted and wanted into this group so far. "I'll just have to run it by my mom later, but I'm sure she'll be fine with it."

"Great! You have texting, right?" Gabriella made sure, already knowing Sharpay had a cellphone since they'd discovered just recently that they had the same one.

"Unlimited." The blonde told her.

"What's your number? I'll text you my address later and you can like mapquest it later."

"Uh...one sec, I have to find it." Sharpay said, pulling her mobile out of her sweatshirt (or more like Gabriella's sweatshirt) pocket. "I keep forgetting my own number since I got it changed to fit this area code when we moved here." _Which kind of sucks since now none of my old friends have my number. Oh well, maybe I should Myspace-it to them later_, she thought to herself.

"That's okay, here, I'll just text myself from yours to get it." Gabriella said, holding her arm out. Sharpay handed over the phone to her and she went to the contacts list to which she pressed the "Add new contact" option, programming her own cell number in there and listing it under her name.

"All done. I'll send you my address later." She said when she was finished. "Lemme see it." Taylor said to Gabriella, referring to Sharpay's phone and before Sharpay knew it, she was getting her cell passed back to her from Kelsi a few minutes later with all four girl's numbers saved into it.

_They really do like me if they all want me to have their numbers....they wouldn't just give that out to anyone...would they? _She thought, proud.

"So yeah guys- I think if everyone comes over around five-ish that'll be good." Gabriella spoke. "Or earlier, whatever."

"How long is the thing?" Sharpay wondered.

"From six thirty to nine thirty. So three hours," Gabriella replied. "We should be back around ten thirty."

"Hopefully I can remember all these times." Sharpay joked.

Gabriella smiled, "Just as long as you remember no later then five, you'll be fine."

* * *

_A/N: I'm really sorry this took me a while to get posted. After that thing with the screwed up document a few weeks ago I guess the thought of re-typing... "old" (?) information bored me so I sort of put it off. But FINALLY I did it! Yay! Hopefully that darn thing doesn't happen again. Can't wait for your awesome reviews. AT LEAST ten? heh. ;)_

_-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx_


	7. Five: Like White On Rice

**Disclaimer: SerrrrrrrrrrrENA does not own High School Musical.**

* * *

Her

**_Chapter Five: Like White On Rice_**

"**_S_**o you don't care if I go, right?" Sharpay, sitting opposite her mom on the couch, asked her.

"I don't know Sharpay, I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with you climbing into a car with a group full of people you've just barely met. Especially if it's an hour long drive."

"_Mom_," Darby's daughter sighed exasperatedly, "come on wow I'm sixteen not six and like I've already told you a hundred times- it's not like I'll be driving with a bunch of twenty five year old men. It's _girls_ my own age."

"That's not the point. Boys, girls, whoever doesn't matter. I was a teenager before, I know what it's like to be driving around with your friends."

_Yeah well YOUR teenage years are all dead and loooooooong gone, _Sharpay thought to herself, but was smart enough to keep that thought inside her mind only. "You let Ryan and I drive together!" she exclaimed, knowing exactly what her mother would say to that...

"That's different. He's your brother and my son."

_Bingo. & Really? I didn't know that when you showed us pictures of the day you brought us home from the hospital!_

"Yeah but he's still a psychotic freak!"

"Hey, you know I can hear you?!" Ryan shouted from the kitchen. The door was open and he could hear their conversation since it was just the next room in the house over.

"Can I go?" Sharpay asked Darby again, ignoring her twin. Their mom wasn't usually this difficult. She used to be pretty easy to convince, but ever since they'd moved she'd gone into compeltely over protective mother mode, and Sharpay was finding it very hard to grow used to this new stubborn person that was her mother.

"I don't even know what these friends of yours are like!" Darby replied sharply.

"Oh don't worry about that. They're total crackwhores, their idea of fun is tying tennis shoe laces together and throwing them over stop lights, they gave each other nipple piercings, ditch class on a regular basis, and oh! One of them tried selling me marijuana today."

"Sharpay."

"I'm sorry, but really mom- you know I always make friends with decent people."

"Decent enough for me to meet first?"

"Mo-om!"

"What?" The older woman asked innocently.

"Urghh. Can't you just say yes and forget about it?"

"Sharpay, I don't know." Darby sighed, shifting positions on the couch. "There's too many nutcase drivers out there on the freeway. I would die if you got hurt."

"I'm not gonna get hurt. Please?"

"You don't know that."

"Yeah I do. Don't worry we'll be careful...............................................................................they're Mormon."

"Jack mormons?" Darby asked with a smirk, purposely messing with her daughter by this point. (Just in case anyone doesn't know, Jack mormons are mormons who break the "rules" of their religion.)

"Mo-om!" Sharpay exclaimed again.

"Honey, I'm sorry but religion has nothing to do with it. Safety first."

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Then I'll wear bubble wrap and strap on a helmet and pads, can I just go?"

"Don't get smart with me," her mom warned in a stern voice. "I'll make you a deal. You can go if you promise to call or text me when you get there, just so I can be sure that you arrived safely."

"Okay fine, I was expecting that anyways." Sharpay said with a shrug. "Thanks mommy!" She grinned and leaned towards her mother to give her a hug before springing up off the couch and running into the kitchen to steal a bite of the sandwich her brother was making, grabbing a water bottle out of the fridge, and dissappearing from the kitchen.

"Hey!" A baffled Ryan called after his sister, as he'd just seen her whiz on past him like a shooting star after eating a bite of HIS ham sandwich!

"Ughh." he groaned.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Knock-knock!" Ryan called through Sharpay's bedroom door in a sing-song voice.

"Go-away!" She called back through the door in a mocking version of his sing-song voice.

"No, see, your supposed to say "whose there"?" Ryan told her, entering her room anyway. She was laying on her stomach on her bed, working on some kind of homework. Or so, that's what he figured anyway since she had a piece of paper in front of her and a textbook open.

"Something you want, Ry?" Sharpay smirked up at her brother, pulling her left ipod headphone out from her ear.

"I don't know." Ryan shrugged, sitting down on the edge of her king sized bed. (Remember what I said about the whole "loaded with cash" thing.) "What's up?"

"Uh....nothing? Just doin' my algebra." Sharpay responded in confusion, gesturing to her textbook. "Shouldn't you be doing yours to?"

"Already done. It's not even do until Monday anyways. Only you would do your homework willingly on a Friday. I did it because I got stuff to do all this weekend."

"Excuse me, but there's nothing else to do right now! I rarely ever do this. And nuh-uh, when did you do yours?" Sharpay asked in an I-don't-really-believe-you/I-highly-doubt-that kind of way.

"Sometime between the time you got home from work and starting begging mom to let you go someplace tomorrow." Ryan responded with an amused chuckle.

"I wasn't begging." Sharpay denied.

Ryan laughed dryly and gave her a knowing look. "But _Mo-ommmmm! They're mormonnnn! I won't get hurrrttt!!! Can I goooo! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaseee!?!!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!_" he mocked in a very high-pitched, girly voice. The brown-eyed girl narrowed her eyes at him.

"Shut up, Ryan. I didn't sound like that." She snapped at him, finding no humor in his false imitation what-so-ever.

"_I alwaaayyyssss make friends with DECENT PEOPLE goddamnit_!" Ryan continued on.

"And I definitley did not sound like _that_!" Sharpay insisted.

"_Mo-ommmmmm! It's not twenty five year old mennn! it's girlsss my own AGEEEE_!" Ryan mimicked.

"Wow you're so dumb." Sharpay huffed, chucking a pillow at him which he dodged. "And you need to quit eavesdropping all the time."

"Your conversation was a bit hard to miss, mind you. And quite entertaining, I might add." The blonde boy told his sister, "except for the psychotic freak part, of course!" to which she rolled her eyes and said "Whatever" before going back to her math homework.

"So what is it you're doing tomorrow anyways?" Ryan asked, changing the topic finally. She shrugged, pretending like she _wasn't_ completely and totally overly excited about it.

"Stuff." She replied nonchalantly.

"So it's a big secret now?"

"Nope, that's just my revenge on you for being an ass ten seconds ago." Sharpay said sweetly with a smile.

"What, not telling me?"

"Exactly." She said, still using her "sweetie pie" voice.

"Oh you're cute." Ryan said sarcastically with an eye roll.

"I know, right?"

"What is it, really?"

"I'm just going to this thing with these people." Sharpay shrugged again, writing down the answer to a math problem.

"Oh please don't tell me they're whisking you off to some church of 'Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!' We're Christian."

"Okay, A, it's pretty sad you memorized the name of their church, Ryan." Sharpay said.

"What you've never seen that commercial where it's all 'ask your mormon friend of this church of Jesus Christ of blahblahblah for a copy of this DVD!'?" Ryan asked her, surprised. He'd seen that ad commercial on television tens of thousands of times.

"I don't really watch TV. But anyways, B, Mormons are Christians..." Sharpay continued.

"Or so they say. Come on Shar, it's like totally made up by some guy in Utah." Ryan told his sister.

"-and three," She continued without bothering to comment on that, "we call ourselves 'Christian' but it's not like we really seem to go to church that much anyway."

"We're busy?" Ryan said uncertainly.

"Yeah, sure." Sharpay replied, brushing him off.

"I heard we were allowed to go to Mormon churches but not read their bible. How weird is that?" Ryan said randomly.

"What? Where'd you hear that?" Sharpay questioned. Ryan shrugged.

"I don't remember. It was a long time ago before we moved. I wonder if it's true." he told his sister. Sharpay shook her head and shrugged also.

"Whatever. Who cares anyway? Why wouldn't we be allowed to read it?" she asked.

Now it was Ryan's turn to shrug again. "They probably talk shit about Muslims or something."

"What the heck?" Sharpay giggled. "Oh gosh, Ryan. You _would_ say that," she said, shaking her head at her weird brother.

"Well? You asked!" He chuckled. "Which people are Mormon at East High that you're apparently now running around with anyway?"

"Uh...you probably don't even know them, seeing as we've only been going there for not even two weeks. But, there's this girl named Gabriella-"

"Montez?" Ryan cut her off, sounding surprised.

"Yeah....how'd you know?" Sharpay asked, just as surprised as him.

"Well she's in our math class...but I've never really talked to her then...but she's also in my fourth period." Her twin responded.

"Which is what again?" Sharpay questioned.

"Child psychology." He reminded her.

"What? Since when were you interested in the minds of children, Mr. I'm-Never-Gonna-Have-Kids?!"

"Since never. But a lot of girls are, for whatever reason. Cute ones, too. And girls plus cute equals happy Ryan." Happy-Ryan explained with a grin. Sharpay rolled her eyes, but didn't comment.

"Anyway, Gabriella's one of those cute ones I'm talking about." Her brother continued, and she couldn't help but agree- silently, of course.

"She sits near me. We talk sometimes. I like her. I didn't know she was Mormon?"

Sharpay shrugged. "Well you know now?" she said. The twins sat in silence for a few moments, each considering their newfound discovery of Sharpay being apparent friends with her brothers'...........................whatever he wanted to call her.

_Ryan said he likes her..................as a friend...................or something else? Why do I care anyways? Why am I so weird when it comes to her? _Sharpay questioned herself, refusing to believe the option that she could seriously be going like lesbian for her or something. The thought had struck her a few times, but she couldn't really even bring herself to consider it. Maybe she just really liked her as a friend. That was all. Right? Maybe...? Sharpay had been through several boyfriends throughout the coarse of her life. Never anything really all that serious. Her longest had been about six or seven months- last year.

But not once before moving to Albuqurque had she ever thought she would like a girl. And she really did not want to start that now. But some things, you just can't prevent from being so...

"Sharpay, listen!" Ryan suddenly spoke up, snapping his sister out of her thoughts. "I just thought of something!"

"What?..." Sharpay asked hesitantly, wondering if she should be afraid of where this was going.

"This works out perfectly. So you're hanging out with Gabriella tomorrow you said, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Great! Just keep that up, grow closer to her, become good friends and all that stuff, and while you two are playing best friends or whatever, you can have her over a lot and maybe I'll "accidentally" bump into her a few times around the house."

"...Uh...okaayy....and...?..."

Ryan shrugged. "And I'll see where things go with her from there! I know it's only been a little over a week, Shar. But who cares I think I'm starting to like her."

Sharpay had to take a calming, deep breath before replying so she wouldn't freak out on him. "What do you mean be like her?" she asked carefully.

"Uh....................you know......liiiiiike herr..."

Sharpay blinked at him. Ryan slapped a hand over his face.

".......Girlfriend-wise?" He told his sister in a "duh" tone of voice, and Sharpay felt her stomach twist in a million different complicated and impossible directions. She didn't say anything, all she did was glare down at her textbook.

"Shar? Are you okay?" Ryan asked her after a few moments. She sighed shortly and sharply and quickly stood up.

"Excuse me." She said, making a beline for her bathroom. She closed the door silently, careful not to slam it, and gripped the edge of the porcelain sink with both hands, taking several deep and calming breaths.

"Shar?" it didn't take long for Ryan to come knocking on the door. "What's going on? Are you okay in there?" he called through the wood in his concerned brother voice.

"I'm fine, Ryan!" Sharpay yelled back at him, and mumbled "just feeling a little queezy."

"Queezy as in nauseous? You didn't seem sick earlier. Is there anything I can do to help?" The blonde boy asked worriedly.

"Just go away, that'll help." She snapped at him, turning on the sink and splashing cold water in her face since it suddenly felt blazingly hot.

"But Shar-"

"Ryan, seriously. I'm FINE!" Sharpay, yanking the door open, shouted in his face before slamming it shut again. She'd only caught a quick glimpse of the taken aback look on his surprised face before doing so. She grabbed a towel and rubbed her face furiously dry, not caring that it kind of hurt. The other side of the door remained silent for several seconds, and she thought he was gone, but then-

"Just trying to help," her brother said defensively. "No need to start PMSing on me." And then, he was gone. Sharpay sighed and hung the hand towel back on it's rack before going back into her bedroom area. Plopping down on her bed, she knew she was probably being too hard on her brother and maybe even a bit bitchy, but she couldn't really help it right now, not when she'd just found out about his "crush" on Gabriella.

"This can't end good." She muttered to herself in dissappointment. "Damnit, Ryan."

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

That night, and pretty much all of Saturday up until about four o'clock went by in a strange haze for Sharpay. It was as if a part of her had almost been missing from her body, or rather, mind. For one thing, she didn't really recall much of how she'd spent the rest of her Friday evening. She remembered finishing her homework, but that was about it. One minute she was figuring out the difference in area between some girl named LuEllen's two gardens, and the next minute she was waking up at eleven AM on Saturday still dressed in her clothes from the previous day with Jesse McCartney's "How Do You Sleep" blasting from her headphones into her ears. Which, I might add, was quite ironic.

_Jesse is talking to me. He's saying WAKE THE HELL UP, EVANS! _Sharpay had thought. _And who in God's name would name their kid LuEllen anyways? Oh screw it, who am I to talk? I'm named after a wrinkly dog. Thank you, mother. Thanks a crapload._

Later, she remembered having a breif conversation with Emma via text message;

_Sharpay: **Are you mad about something?**_

_Emma: **Can't talk, my crappy flip phone is about to die.**_

_Sharpay: **Alright....bye...but are you mad?**_

_Emma never replied to that one._

_But then, later;_

_Lea: **Emma just told me she got an IPHONE YESTERDAY! For no apparent reason either! How lucky is that?!?**_

_And you'd have to be totally stupid to think an iPhone was crappy, or a flip phone. Sharpay herself had spent months trying to convince her own mom and her dearest stepfather for one, with no such luck._

_"We don't want to spoil you completely, honey." Darby had always told her. "We don't want you to grow up being selfish and thinking you can get whatever you want in life. Vance and I discussed this at least a dozen times. So it's either the cell phone or that Prada bag you wanted."_

_"Call me crazy mom, but both are pretty big splurges, I'd say." Ryan had cut in. "Does she really deserve either?"_

_"Shut up, Ryan. Alright mom...may I please have the tote then?"_

_So she'd recieved the tote, along with her pink mustang convertible, on her and Ryan's sixteenth birthday._

So now it was four PM, and with nothing to do for another hour, Sharpay sauntered on down the staircase that led to the first floor of her housemansion, and into the living room in hopes of finding something interesting to keep her occupied for an hour.

"You're finally out of being incagnito?" Ryan asked her by way of greeting when she came in and sat down on the couch opposite him.

"Did you miss me?"

"You wish, sis."

"Sharpay- come take out the trash, please!" The voice of their stepfather called from the kitchen.

Okay...that's not quite what she had in mind to keep her occupied. But dang. It was like Vance knew she had come downstairs at that exact moment. Freakishly good timing, much?

_Ew. Trash? Why me?_

"Because I did it yesterday." Ryan said from his position on the living room couch, answering her precise thoughts. She stared in confusion at the side of his head.

"I didn't say anything..." she told him, and he simply answered "twin telepathy."

"Like that really even exists, Ryan."

"I just answered to the whiny voice inside your head, did I not?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes, but didn't respond. Instead she stood up and left him to his television-watching couch potato self and entered the kitchen, where she found Vance chopping onions.

"Off work early today?" she asked him, surprised. He usually worked very late- and that included weekends. With the exception of just last week though, since he'd taken time off to help his family unpack their belongings.

"For once, Fulton's got everything under control." The middle-aged man replied, speaking of the manager of Lava Springs.

"So whatcha making?" Sharpay asked, watching as he scooped the onions into a plastic bowl and began grating cheese.

"Chicken enchiladas. You interested?"

"Save me a plate, I'm leaving in about an hour."

"Where you headed?" Vance asked his stepdaughter.

"Just hanging out with some friends." Sharpay told him.

"Alright...but remember to take out the garbage like I asked, okay?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna do it now." She said, heading for the cupboards under the sink. She'd always wondered how come he'd never bothered to hire a maid, he could sure as heck afford one. When she'd asked him that a week ago, he'd replied the same thing her mother would: _"Chores help teach good work ethic. Now that you're here, I thought you could handle just that."_

_"I already have a job, though..."_

_"That's good. But with some extra practice, you'll be a manager in no time."_

She didn't really understand how washing dishes or being on garbage duty was going to help her become a lawyer, nurse, or some other important job worker in the future. Regardless, she still had to and was going to do it anyways.

Five minutes later, Sharpay found herself in the living room again next to Ryan, watching some boring golf channel.

"What teenage guy other than you watches golf anyways, Ryan?" She groaned boredly at her brother.

"You'd be surprised, oh loving sister of mine." The blonde boy replied, not taking his eyes away from the flatscreen for a second.

"Could we at least watch something _I'd _be even the slightest bit interested in?"

"Sorry, but I'm not about to change the channel to some Legally Blonde shit." Ryan said.

"Elle Woods is very inspiring, alright?" Sharpay snapped in defense of one of her favorite movies and it's main character.

"So is _Tiger_ Woods."

Before Sharpay could reply to that, she felt her cell phone buzz in her pocket. She pulled it out to find a message from Gabriella.

_Coming soon? (:_

She glanced at the clock, which read 4:31.

_Yeah, five right? lol._

"Ah Sharpay, always the cumpulsive texter." Ryan teased.

"Don't you have old men playing with balls to watch?" Sharpay snapped at him.

"As a matter of fact, I do, thank you very much."

_You should just come now...Tay and Kels are already here. Martha is on her way, _Gabriella responded in her next text.

_Oh, okay :)_

"I won't stop you then. Have fun, Ry. Adios!" Sharpay said to her twin, standing up and heading upstairs for her purse and keys before heading out the door.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Maple View Terrace...Maple View Terrace...where the hell is Maple View Terrace?!" Sharpay groaned in aggravation. All these new street signs and loops and twists and turns were way too confusing for her. "Oh there it is! Maple View Terrace. Freaking finally." She said to herself with a sigh of relief. Her fear had been getting lost on her way to the house.

She turned into the cute little neighborhood, convertible top down, and turned into the second street- NE Kiltie, like the directions in her right hand told her to. She then began driving slowly as she carefully searched mailboxes and front doors for house numbers.

"Sixteen-fourteen Northeast Kiltie..." she read on the paper. It took her a minute or so to find it- a nicely sized dark brown home with white pillars and a double roof of a lighter shade of brown. There were several windows visible on different parts of the front of the house, which was partially surrounded by trees. The lawn seemed to be taken great care of, but there really didn't seem to be any form of a driveway or garage unless it was somewhere in the back of the house, so Sharpay parked on the curb behind three other cars which she could only assume belonged to Kelsi, Martha, and Taylor.

She heard lots of excited chatter, or yelling, and a lot of footsteps running around behind the closed front door when she made her way across the front yard and up the walkway to the entrance of the home and rang the doorbell. Shouts of "I'll get it!" and laughter seemed to echo througout the inside of the house. From the way it sounded, you'd think a second grader's birthday party was going on in there. Sharpay watched and heard fumbling of the lock before the door was pulled open a few seconds later.

"Hey! Come in," an out-of-breath Gabriella greeted her, her pretty face bright and cheery as she opened the door further, revealing a smiley Kelsi behind her, for Sharpay to step inside. The warm feel and scent of freshly baked cookies greeted her as she entered. It didn't take her long at all the instantly notice the flour all over Gabriella and Kelsi's faces, hair, arms, and clothes.

"Who threw you two in a field of snow?" Sharpay giggled at their appearances.

"Taylor started it!" Kelsi exclaimed, "then Martha walked in, saw us smothering each other in flour, and ran upstairs to hide. We haven't been able to find her, and it's been like, ten minutes!"

"Oh...really? Ha, weird." Sharpay said, not being able to help but feeling at least a little bit left out of the loop.

"GABBY SHE'S IN YOUR CLOSET!" the jovial voice of Taylor suddenly screamed from the upstairs, followed by a laugh and a "NO!" from Martha. Kelsi quickly darted up the stairs, a mischevious smirk on her face.

"You don't need to be freaked out, Sharpay." Gabriella smiled at her new friend. "This is strangely how we always act. Don't worry!" She laughed.

"I'm not freaked out.." Sharpay denied, though admittedly she did feel slightly awkward.

"You don't have to deny it either." The brunette smiled warmly, making her heart thump faster. Even with a face caked with flour, her smile was truly gorgeous.

"Okay, sorry," Sharpay laughed. "It's just a little more crazy than I've grown accustomed to in the last few weeks. All quiet and stressful from moving and stuff, you know?" she continued honestly.

"I get it. Don't worry, I know how you feel. I was new here in middle school."

"Really...?" Sharpay asked slowly, recalling how on her first day she remembered either Lea, Jackie, or Emma saying that they'd known Gabriella since their preschool years. So something didn't quite fit in this picture.

"No," Gabriella admitted with a giggle. "Just trying to make you feel better."

"Oh! Okay, haha, well it sorta helped. Thanks." Sharpay said, her suspicions gone. Gabriella nodded.

"Wanna go upstairs now?" The latina asked.

Sharpay started to say "sure" but before she could get as far as the R Gabriella grabbed her hand and led her up the flight of stairs leading to her bedroom on the second floor.

Sharpay couldn't resist staring at their hands clasped together as she followed the other girl up, feeling like her chest was about to burst. It was quite odd how even the tiniest move from this girl seemed to drive her insane. But at the same time, she couldn't help but noting that most people would just usher you up the stairs or expect you to follow or something...but not grab hold of your hand like that...right?

Maybe that's just how Gabriella was though, which wasn't even a bad thing or anything. In any case she still didn't let go as the two girls trailed down the long hallway to the very end of the hall, where clear laughter was flowing out through the open door.

"Cool room," Sharpay complimented as they entered and saw Taylor, Kelsi, and Martha in a tangled heap of limbs on the floor; Taylor and Kelsi pinning Martha down to smear flour from themselves on her face as she struggled under the both of them.

_"Cool room?" That's the best I could do? I'm soooooooooooo stupid! _Sharpay thought, angry with herself, but couldn't surpress a laugh at the sight of the other three girls.

"Thanks," Gabriella smiled, casually dropping her hand. "Guys don't get that stuff on my carpet, my mom will go nuts!"

"Speaking of your mom, where is she anyway?" Taylor suddenly asked, rolling away from the heap of bodies and sitting in a criss cross form on her best friend's carpeted floor.

"Out buying stuff for the tamales she's making for our church's potlatch tomorrow." Gabriella told her friend, the "our" being herself, Martha, Kelsi, and a whole bunch of other people.

"Oh," Taylor said, by now used to the fact that her three best friends were all Mormon and she wasn't. She was a strong Catholic herself. She then turned her attention to Sharpay. "Hi," she smiled in greeting form, to which the other girl offered back a kind "hey."

"Guys- hate to kill the 'fun' but we have to leave in twenty minutes." Martha spoke up, changing the subject as she wiped some of the white powder off her cheek that Taylor had got on her.

"Yeah, we'd better start cleaning up. The kitchen's a mess, too." Kelsi said in a bummed out way. "Your mom's gonna be_ really_ mad if she comes back to find it like that..." she said to Gabriella.

"Where'd all the flour come from?" Sharpay wondered aloud.

"My cupboard. We were baking cookies for the road since we're going to be gone a while..." Gabriella said, to which Taylor finished with "...and the rest is all a blur..."

Everyone chuckled at that one.

"Well, since I'm not as messy as you three," Martha said, gesturing to Taylor, Gabriella, and Kelsi, "I'll go get started on helping with the kitchen and you can get _yourselves_ clean. How bad is it?"

"Not _too _bad...." Taylor hesitated. Gabriella bit her lip. Kelsi supressed a snicker and looked away.

"I'll help you, Martha." Sharpay spoke up.

"You sure? You didn't do anything." Martha said.

"Yeah, but neither did you," Sharpay pointed out. "Really, it's okay."

"Well...okay..."

"We'll clean up quick so we can come help, too." Kelsi offered, feeling bad that the two that didn't do anything to contribute to the mess of the kitchen were the two offering to clean it.

"Yeah, we promise." Gabriella backed her up. Taylor nodded in agreement. Sharpay and Martha nodded their okay's at the three before sharing a look that said "Alright, let's go." Martha stood up and was about to show Sharpay to the kitchen since shed' never been to Gabriella's house before, when Gabriella stopped them.

"Before you go..." she said to Sharpay, opening up her arms. "Hug?"

Sharpay stared at her in confusion for a moment, wondering why in the world she would want a random hug, before realizing that it was because she was covered head to shins in flour and obviously wanted to get it all over Sharpay, too.

"Haha no way!" Sharpay declined the hug offer, backing slowly away as Gabriella started advancing towards her with a smirk on her face. No matter how nice it probably would be to engage in embrace with her, Sharpay did not want to get dirty right now.

"That is not how you respond to people when they're trying to hug you!" Gabriella said, pretending to be playfully offended. She came closer, and Sharpay backed further away from her.

"I'm just gonna go downstairs now....Martha, let's go!" She said, ready to make a run for it. Gabriella must've sensed this, because she ran at Sharpay, tackle-huggle-glomping her to the ground. Sharpay gasped and the two of them landed with an ungraceful _thud_ on the floor, laughing the whole time. The three other girls in the room joined in on the laughter as they watched the tanned blonde try to squirm away from the mocha skinned brunette, and before Sharpay knew it, she had all four of them on top of her in some kind of awkward, weird, on-the-ground group hug. If there was one quick thing she'd just very recently discovered, or learned about these girls was that they all seemed to be very touchy-feely.

Several minutes went by and the five of them were still in their strange heap- the order being Sharpay, Gabriella, Kelsi, and somehow Taylor and Martha at the same time. Shouts of "get off of me!" mixed in with laughter came from Sharpay, but no one listened to her, telling by her laughter that she really didn't care that much about being squished and covered with flour- not too much, since it was mostly just sticking to Gabriella, Kelsi, and Taylor, but a fair amount of it was still shaken upon her.

But their fun was halted quickly and suddenly when Gina Montez, Gabriella's mother, and a woman Sharpay had never met before, appeared in the bedroom doorway with a strongly displeased look on her face.

"What is going on here?! And what happened to my kitchen!??"

The giggles and laughter stopped abruptly as the friends scrambled off each other.

"Mom-" Gabriella spoke, but no further words came out. She turned around and looked at the clock on her bedside table. 4:58. There was no way they were getting out of here in just two minutes. Not with the five of them coated with white powder, the kitchen downstairs being in even worse condition, her bedroom floor covered in it too, and her uptight and beyond angry mother glaring at her and her friends from the doorway.

* * *

_A/n: Just so everyone knows this completely irrelevant and random fact: Gabriella's house in this story is indeed the same one as in the movies. I mean it's supposed to be anyways. I tried to describe the outside the same way we see it lol._

_Sorry for the long wait on this chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to update faster come Summertime. I've got like 40 days of school left. Almost kinda there! Woo. ;) hehe. I'm honestly kinda dissappointed with the smallish number of reviews for last chapter. I don't do the whole 'I'll update as soon as I get however many reviews' thing (which I'm not at all saying is a bad thing for anyone out there that has done that), I'm just saying I don't really do that, but I'd still really really appreciate every review heh. I mean...I'd like to know that you guys are all still even interested in this fic? But thank you so much to those of you who always do leave me kind reviews!_

_Oh! And sorry for the long author's note but what did everyone think of Ashley's video for It's Alright It's Ok? It was alright...I mean...it was ok... (-holds up a sign that says "Pun Intended: Laugh Now!-)...but as my friend Clotisy says, "**Did she really have to take photos with that many guys to get even? If anything her ex is thinking she's a huge whore and was probably cheating too lol**_._"_

_Well said! And what was up with the bra flashing? I mean we love Ashley but.............seriously? I was a kinda dissappointed. :/ Her lip syncing was also a bit off. xD Still love the song though._

_INCREASE THE PEACE THE HATE CAN WAIT. ;)_

_-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx_


	8. Six: Road Trip

**Disclaimer: No one around here.**

* * *

**PREVIOUSLY:**

_"Mom-" Gabriella spoke, but no further words came out. She turned around and looked at the clock on her bedside table. 4:58. There was no way they were getting out of here in just two minutes. Not with the five of them coated with white powder, the kitchen downstairs being in even worse condition, her bedroom floor covered in it too, and her uptight and beyond angry mother glaring at her and her friends from the doorway._

* * *

Her

**_Chapter Six: Road Trip_**

"**_W_**ell?" Gina Montez scowled at her daughter, zeroing in on her above her friends who were sitting uncomfortably on the floor. Some, with their legs crossed, and others, leaning back. The only similarity in all of their posture's was how they were all staring guiltily at the carpet of Gabriella's bedroom floor.

Gabriella glanced quickly around at the faces of her friends, unsure of what to say. She went from Kelsi, to Taylor, to Martha, and finally, Sharpay, who seemed least comfortable of all. Her face was bright red as she bit her lower lip with her chocolate brown eyes glaring deep into a spot of flour on the floor.

But of course- she _had_ to be in the worst position of all right now (minus Gabriella, herself, who had to pretty much take full responsibility for the situation- trashing her room and the kitchen while her mother was out) - because she hadn't ever even met Gina, up until now; and what a way to make an impression.

"...Mom I-" she stared at her new friend a while longer.

"This is Sharpay!" the mocha skinned girl blurted, figuring that might be a little bit better than the traditional "_I can explain_!"

The blonde shifted self consciously from her position on the ground at the five pairs of eyes she felt burning into her skull at that moment, all at once. But knowing that just sitting there like a mute goon would probably make her come off as totally standoffish, unfriendly, and rude, she forced herself to suck it up and look Mrs. or Miss. Montez (who was now staring blankly at her) directly in the eye.

But what to say? Anyone would be at a loss for words if in her position.

"Nice to meet you, and I'm really sorry about all this," Sharpay managed. There, good enough?

Apparently not.

It took a while for Gina to respond- causing Sharpay to be just about sure that she must be deaf or something, but after some of the longest, most tension filled silent seconds Sharpay or any of the other teenagers in the room had ever experienced, the older woman finally spoke again.

"Welcome to our home...Sharpay, and I would say 'nice to meet you, too', but this I don't think is the nicest situation you or I would like to meet anyone in."

Sharpay was silent after that, having no idea how to respond to what she'd said. Gabriella glanced back and forth from her friend to the woman who birthed her while holding her breath, hoping to God that this misfortune would end up playing out fine.

"Gabriella, hallway please" the older version of the silky-haired brunette said sternly, yet calmly, gesturing with her hand to her daughter to "come here now, and I mean it."

The sixteen year old rose obediently from her sitting-on-her-knees position and followed her mom out the door, turning one last time to look back at her friends to mouth the words "help me," before closing the bedroom door gently behind her.

Martha, Taylor, Sharpay, and Kelsi stayed quiet after the two Montez's retreat; all of them staring at the door, wondering when it would open again, for a long while.

"What's she gonna do?" Sharpay, having known Mrs. or Miss Montez for under a minute, dramatically and wonderingly asked her companions, breaking the tense silence that had fallen over them.

Martha shrugged cluelessly, Kelsi shook her head but didn't say a word, and Taylor was the only one to actually answer. "You never really know with Gina, but it's really not a big deal- so we'll probably just have to clean up the messes, and hopefully she'll end up liking you next time you're around."

"You don't think she likes me?"

and

"What about the showcase?"

were what came first from Sharpay's mouth at the same time as Martha's at what Taylor said.

"Nevermind," the darker-skinned girl shook her head at the blonde. "I didn't mean it like that."

Sharpay frowned, but didn't say anything.

"What about the showcase?" Martha repeated , a hint of panic in her normally bubbly, jovial voice.

Taylor just sighed. Kelsi tsk-ed and pulled her knees up to her chest, and Sharpay reverted her eyes over to the clock which now read 5:03.

But no one had an answer to _that_ question.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Are you saying we can't go anymore?" Gabriella couldn't help but raise her voice at her mother.

"Yo estoy diciendo, es necesario limpiar la cocina antes de hacer, y buena suerte que a su evento a tiempo, porque sólo el Señor sabe cuánto tiempo tendrá que!" Gina shouted back.

"Mom, please, please just speak to me in English, they can't even hear us," Gabriella said, referring to her friends in her room and fighting the urge to roll her eyes. She hated when her mother yelled at her in that foreign language.

"I'm saying, you need to clean up the kitchen before you do, and good luck making it to your event on time, because only the Lord knows how long that will take!" Miss. Montez repeated what she'd said in English.

"But what if we do clean it and it's too late? The showcase is an hour away!"

"Es por eso que he dicho- la buena suerte, Bella."

"Mom, English!" It's not that Gabriella couldn't understand her Spanish words, because she could, it just sounded less mean in English to her.

"Ay dios mio! That's why I said good luck!"

"We're not going to make it in time!" Gabriella yelled.

"You'd better move it, then."

"Fine, but can I just stay and clean, and let my friends go? I don't want them to get mad at me for making them miss out," she said sadly, forcing her voice to sound more calm.

"Whatever you feel like you need to do, I just want this place cleaned up. Oh, and please put away the groceries I bought," Gina said, shaking her head and walking away to her own bedroom, leaving her daughter standing there in front of her own bedroom door in defeat. The small brunette sighed in disappointment before gripping the door handle and re-entering her little space...

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

Simultaneous demands of "What'd she say??" are what immediately came flying from the mouth's of the four girls still sprawled on the bedroom floor. Gabriella shrugged slowly and closed the door behind her before walking over to her bed and sitting down. Her friends quickly turned around towards her and away from the door, awaiting her answer(s).

"Basically just that I need to clean the kitchen....and my room, I'm assuming also. But the kitchen, she said, is like...my top priority."

"That's gonna take _forever_," Kelsi groaned, though she knew they had it coming. Gabriella was silent at first, distractedly pulling at a loose string hanging from her baby blue v-neck tee, before finally responding a little while later.

"For me, maybe...probably," she said carefully, "but I refuse to let you guys miss out."

"What are you saying?" Taylor asked her best friend.

"Go without me, and maybe I'll try to meet up with you guys down there later," the latina suggested, smiling kindly at her friends in attempt to hide her disappointment. She really did think they should go on without her, no matter how much she wanted to go right now with them- even though they were already running a little late.

"Haha, you're real funny Bri. Good one!" Kelsi said with an eye roll, speaking for all of them. How could Gabriella even consider that option? Either they would all go, or all stay. But not half and half or one out of five or whatever.

"We all contributed to the mess downstairs," the almost-Mary-Kate-Olsen-look-alike finished.

"Not Sharpay and Martha.." Taylor pointed out, glancing at the two who just shrugged. Martha had run upstairs in fear of getting caked with flour the second she walked in to find the threesome coating each other (and the kitchen) with it, and of course by the time Sharpay had arrived the little "party" had already moved on upstairs to Gabriella's bedroom, and she hadn't even seen the kitchen yet.

"I'm fine staying and helping," Sharpay said, especially since it wouldn't even be fun with just two people anyway.

"Me too!" Martha quickly agreed. There was no way she was going anywhere without her friends._ All_ of them.

"No," Gabriella shook her head; causing her soft brown waves to bounce. "You guys are _going_."

"Sike!" Taylor said, meaning "haha _false_!"

"If you're not going, we're not. None of us, that's it." Martha said, and everyone but Gabriella nodded in agreement.

"But-"

"and by sitting here arguing about it, we're just wasting more time 'cause it's already almost ten after. So we're already late, what's twenty more minutes?" The pop-n-lock-jam-breaker finished.

"Almost half the time it takes to get there." Gabriella muttered back in response.

"Wait did you just say "twenty minutes is nothing, and I'm really glad you're all staying to help out" ?" Kelsi asked with a smile. "Because I'm pretty sure that's what you just said."

"Kels-" Gabriella whined, but was cut off by Sharpay.

"Yeah Kelsi, she did say that!" the blonde nodded in agreement with Kelsi.

"Guys-"

"No need to beg, Gabi, we'll stay geeze!" Taylor added.

"Seriously, Taylor-"

"Gabriella please, we already said we'd stay, you really don't need to keep asking!" Martha chuckled. Gabriella rolled her eyes.

"Okay, you know what?" she laughed, giving up. There was no way she was going to win in this four against one thing."Fine!"

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Guys I know you said you'd stay to help, but I'm just warning you right now that it's _bad _in there," Gabriella warningly told Sharpay and Martha as the group of five made their way down the staircase- Taylor in the lead, followed by Kelsi, then Gabriella, then Sharpay, and finally Martha.

"Enough already, I'm sure it's not that bad," Martha said with an eye roll. That had to be about the fifth or sixth time the brunette had said that- just in different words, since they'd left her room just thirty seconds ago!

"It is, I can promise you of that. Not just bad, _really_-"

"Gabriella. _Really_?" Sharpay asked, actually becoming just as annoyed as Martha. Okay so it was bad. _They got it_. So what? That's why there were five people cleaning the place.

"Yeah...really bad." Gabriella told her, not seeming to understand what Sharpay was actually trying to say.

"No, I mean... really? As in, you're_ really_ going to repeat that again?"

"I'm sorry, just....don't say I didn't warn you," the latina said softly as the line of teenagers trailed one by one into their destination- the (dun dun dun) _**kitchen**_. (insert-overly-dramatic-music-here)

"See? It's not that-" Martha started as she was the last to enter the room. Her jaw dropped however when she saw the condition of it. Flour was everywhere! _Everywhere_, everywhere. All over the counter, stove, tabletops, floor, microwave, oven...even the _fridge_! It looked like Christmas at the mall when Santa was there to take pictures with the little kids. Only, worse.

"...Okay, it's bad." Martha finished.

"I _told _you!" Gabriella exclaimed pointedly.

"Where did you get so much flour?" Sharpay wondered aloud in disbelief, thinking there was no way in heck all of that could come from one bag.

"Storage room. Basment." Kelsi shrugged while running her finger over some of the power that coated the counter, answering for Gabriella.

Sharpay nodded in understanding, and the girls stood silent after that, taking in their surroundings.

"So...do we wipe the counter, or sweep first?" Sharpay finally asked any or all four of them. They weren't going to get anywhere by just standing here, and the seconds just kept ticking on by. The clock on the microwave read 5:15.

"Wipe. Sweep. Mop. Vacuum," Gabriella stated the order in which they were to do things, and then added "hold on, I'll go get some rags."

She left the room and came back a minute later with a tiny stack of checkered dish rags of assorted colors. Keeping a red and black one for herself, she handed one to each other person in the room, whom all immediately went for the sink to dampen their towels while Gabriella went for the Pledge table cleaner under the sink.

"With any luck," Taylor said, wiping away a spot of flour on the counter, "we'll be able to finish in like twenty minutes."

"Luck?" Gabriella scoffed, well aware of the time and how they were due seventeen minutes late already. "Luck doesn't exist for us anymore."

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Perfect!" Kelsi stated happily just over twenty minutes later like Taylor had suggested when they were finished with the kitchen.

"Ugh. Finally." Gabriella sighed, placing her hands on her hips.

"Still wanna do your room, Gabi?" Martha asked, dusting her palms over her jeans. "Or would your mom mind if we held that off until a little later?"

"Let's just leave now." Gabriella responded, noting how the show began in just under an hour. If they left now they'd be somewhere between ten and twenty minutes late, which couldn't bee too bad, right? "I'll clean it later."

"Can we freshen up a little first?" Taylor asked, and Gabriella nodded.

"Yeah but no more than five minutes. We have to be out of here asap," she said, but Taylor had already started out of the room. The rest of the girls followed her upstairs to the bathroom a little ways down the hall from Gabriella's bedroom. It was hard for all five of them to cram in front of the mirror at once, so Kelsi sat on the toilet patiently waiting for her turn as Sharpay went to go retrieve her purse from Gabriella's room to get her lipgloss and mini hairbrush and Gabriella, Martha, and Taylor took over the mirror first.

"Anyone done yet?" Kelsi asked any of her three friends two minutes later. All turned to her with "are-you-serious?" written all over their faces, their hairbrushes, mascara, and lipgloss frozen in their palms in thin air, before turning back to the mirror without bothering to answer her question. Kelsi sighed.

"You guys all look fine. Hurry."

Sharpay returned to the restroom then but lingered in the door frame since there would be no point in going in now anyways since the mirror was currently being occupied by three people already. She watched as Gabriella combed with care a brush through her shiny, smooth-looking strands of hair, thinking that_ this girl doesn't even need to freshen up at all._

"Look why don't you two go use the mirrors in my room?" Gabriella suggested then to Sharpay and Kelsi, as she just now for some reason remembered to having three mirrors in her room- a full length, a medium one, and a small one that just showed your face.

"Good idea!" Kelsi sprang up from her seated position and darted out of the room, grabbing Sharpay's arm as she passed her, causing the blonde girl to let out a "Whoa!" as she was pulled alongside Kelsi back to the bedroom.

"Do you need the full length?" Kelsi asked her once back in the room. Sharpay shook her head.

"No, I'm fine I'll just use this one." She said, walking over to the medium length one that hung on the wall where she began combing her brush through her silky locks. She glanced around self consciously after a moment when she saw Kelsi watching her out of the corner of her eye.

"What?" she asked, turning to her with a nervous chuckle. The other girl shook her head.

"Oh sorry! I was just looking at your hair. Do you get complimented on it a lot?"

"Oh uh...sometimes I guess," Sharpay shrugged like it was no big deal.

"Well it's really pretty," Kelsi smiled. Sharpay returned the smile.

"Thanks," she said, turning back to her reflection and Kelsi went back to the full length mirror to straighten her shirt out and touch up her own features.

Gabriella returned by herself a minute later and told them that Martha and Taylor were on their way outside already to get the car started up.

"Everyone ready?" she asked, glancing back and forth from Kelsi to Sharpay.

"Almost," the two answered at once before looking at each other and laughing.

"Jinx!" Sharpay called out, Kelsi rolled her eyes and laughed again.

"Whatever."

"Hey, that means you're not supposed to talk until someone says your name," she said jokingly. The other girl shrugged.

"My bad."

"And yet you're still talking." Sharpay joked as Gabriella glanced at the clock on her bedside table.

"It's 5:42! Show starts in 48 minutes, come on guys, please hurry?" she urged on Kelsi and Sharpay. They were already gonna miss the first ten or so minutes, and that wasn't including the time it took to park.

"Okay, okay, I'm done, yeesh." Kelsi gave in with a sigh, capping her berry lipgloss and dropping it carelessly back into her purse.

"I'm going downstairs," she announced then, practically running out of the room.

"Sharpay?" Gabriella then asked, walking over to her "you ready?"

"Yeah just about, I just have to-" Sharpay started.

"No, you don't. You're goregous enough already, quit trying to show the rest of us up." Gabriella smiled jokingly, pulling her away from the mirror.

"Hey, I could've said the same to you when you were hogging up the mirror with Taylor and Martha in the bathroom just a few minutes ago." Sharpay replied with a laugh, trying to make it seem like she was joking as well even though she was being dead serious. Her heart sped up immediatley at the compliment and she actually wouldn't be surprised- just one hell of a lock embarrassed, if Gabriella could hear it right now, so that's why she tried to make her reaction seem light.

The brunette bit her bottom lip, subconsciously so her smile didn't seem as huge as it would've been otherwise at what Sharpay had said to her just now.

"Thanks," she said, looking at her new friend with cheery bright brown eyes. They just kind of stared at each other like that for a moment longer than what should've been normal before Gabriella finally snapped out of it. "Hey come on, they're waiting." She said, walking quickly out of the room, her cheeks feeling slightly flushed and warmer than usual. Sharpay stared after her in wonderment before slowly following after her, unaware that she was blushing a little.

_What just happened? _She asked herself. It was nothing but somehow at the same time, it was certainly something. Starting from "you're gorgeous enough already" and ending with when Gabriella turned her face and body away from her and had shuffled quickly out of the room, she replayed the moment in her mind a couple of times as she went downstairs and outside and climbed into the backseat of Gabriella's mother's car as Gabriella went to the driver's seat.

"Finally outta here!" Martha cheered as the car was put into drive and they started down the street.

"Santa Fe, here we come!" Taylor agreed with a laugh. Sharpay sighed inwardly and leaned her head against the window, unable to shake the moment upstairs from her mind.

**-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-**

"Who wants to play Truth or Dare?" Taylor asked about half an hour later, twisting around in the passenger's seat to face Kelsi, Sharpay, and Martha who were seated in the back.

"I do!" Martha joined in enthusiastically and Kelsi was quick to agree with a vigrous nod. Sharpay watched the scene in partial disbelief. If there was one thing she'd for sure noticed about these girls it was that they sure got excited over things easily.

"What about you?" Taylor asked her, and she smiled politely and nodded.

"Sure."

"Can I go first?" Gabriella asked from the driver's seat, keeping her eyes close on the road. There were just about halfway there with 29 miles left to go.

"Sure." Taylor agreed, turning back around and looking out the windshield.

"Okay. So Tay," Gabriella began with a grin, not taking her eyes away from the paved road that lay ahead of her. "Truth or dare?"

"Well," Taylor said, "I think it might be hard for you to dare me to do anything since we're in a car, so how about truth?"

Gabriella thought for a minute. "Alright, so, if you were told one day that you only have twenty four hours left to live, how would you spend the rest of your short time and why?"

"Geeze. How'd you think of that question?" Martha wondered. That was a tough one. How _would_ you spend the rest of your life if only for one more day?

Gabriella shrugged.

"I don't know. It just came to me," she admitted.

"You mean like if I was told that right now or within the next week or something?" Taylor tried to clarify. "Or if I were told this when I'm like thirty or seventy five-ish?"

"Right now," Gabriella shrugged. "Or whenever. I don't know."

"Well, if it were when I'm seventy five I'd probably cry and then go to sleep." Taylor giggled. "I mean, what else could I do?"

"Wow, haha. Okay, how about if it were within the next week or something then?" Gabriella tried.

"Um..." Taylor paused, trying to figure out how to answer this question. "I'd probably spend the first twelve hours trying to accomplish some of the things I've always wanted to do but never got around to doing, and the last twelve hours with my friends and family."

"What all would you try to accomplish in twelve hours?" Sharpay wondered, becoming interested in her answer.

"Well...I've always wanted to go to Greece. But that in itself could take several hours, and I wouldn't want to waste any or that much time sitting on an airplane. "

"Then you should go _with _your friends and family to Greece," Sharpay said. "That way you'd save the last twelve hours, and be sharing your last life experiences with the people you care about."

"What's in Greece?" Kelsi wondered. She'd been friends with Taylor since practically forever and she'd never said anything about Greece before.

"Haven't you seen what it looks like?" Taylor asked her, "it's beautiful there."

"Isn't that where they filmed _Mamma Mia_?" Martha recalled, that was one of her favorite movies.

"I think so. Or parts of it at least." Taylor shrugged.

"And Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants!" Gabriella added.

"But the water...it's so clear blue. I could spend hours just sitting on the beach, taking it all in." Taylor continued, picturing the glorious country in her mind.

"It is." Sharpay clarified with a nod. "And the temperature is like, perfect. Especially in the summer. It's amazing."

This comment resulted in her being stared wide-eyed at by three out of four other passengers in the car. But the fourth one, Gabriella, did seem to swerve a little on the road as she craned her neck to get a quick shocked glimpse at Sharpay before reverting her eyes back to the road in front of her.

"What?..." Sharpay asked self consciously, feeling the pressure come on at the three pairs of and six eyeballs altogether gaping at her.

"How do you know that?"  
"Have you _been _there?"

Where the two things that came simultaneously from the mouths of first Taylor and then Kelsi. Martha was still too surprised to speak.

"Uh.." Sharpay began nervously. Great. She couldn't believe she'd just practically let that slip.

"Yeah..." she admitted slowly. "Just once though."

More like three times.

"Two Summers ago."

Last Summer also, and for three weeks in the Winter a couple of years ago.

"Are you rich?" Martha finally spoke.

And this was the question she always dreaded being asked. _Are you rich?_ No, she wasn't rich. _Vance_ was pretty wealthy, but_ she_ wasn't.

"Not really." Sharpay mumbled in answer to the question that she was asked all too often- not much lately, being new in Albuquerque and all, but all the time back home in Indiana.

What, had these girls never been on a vacation before? Lots of people traveled out of the country in the summertime, and you didn't need to be "rich" per say to do so. Winter, not as often, but still. Then again, they didn't know or need to know that she'd been to Greece a total of three times....in addition to France, Barcelona, Rome, Russia...basically more European/Asian places than most people went to, as well as the Fiji islands, Japan, and other popular vacation spots in and around the United States.

"Where else have you been?" Taylor wanted to know.

"Um..." she was not about to go through that long list again, especially not out loud. Then they'd really probably be convinced that she was rich.

"Florida, but that's about it," she lied. But she had been to Florida...five times, because that's where Vance and Derby had first met, and they always found it romantic to go back there and reminisce or whatever whenever they could, and they insisted on taking Ryan and Sharpay along with them too.

Geeze.

It was amazing how all of this could be packed into just the last five years those two had been married. Well...technically in the last six, since it'd taken them a year of dating to tie the knot. But still.

"What about you guys?" Sharpay asked the four other passengers of the car. "Where've you been?"

She hoped it didn't come off as if she was challenging them or anything or trying to be all "Haha I've been to Greece and Florida, I'm better than you." Because she was genuinely interested....and she also would try anything to get the attention focused off of her. Besides, weren't they supposed to be playing Truth or Dare, here?

"The best place I've been to is probably Maui." Martha said, "Last year." She then giggled. "And Disney World!"

"I really liked Universal Studios...you know, in California." Taylor told Sharpay. "And I've also been to Hawaii a couple of times. But it's been a while. And as you all know I_ really_want to go to Greece." There was a brief pause, before she added. "Kelsi goes to Mexico practically every summer."

"I do not!" Kelsi insisted. "I haven't gone since I think the summer before last."

"Do you like it there?" Sharpay asked.

"Of course! You step outside for five minutes and already it's like you've got an instant tan. Really gotta pile on the sun tan lotion."

"How come you go there a lot?" Sharpay wanted to know.

Kelsi shrugged. "My family just really likes it there. I think my dad said we might go again this summer. We usually go to Cancun."

Sharpay nodded, then turned her attention to Gabriella who'd been pretty much silent this whole time. "What about you, Gabriella?"

It took the brunette a while to respond. "I...haven't gone anywhere in a while," she spoke slowly and carefully, and Sharpay wanted to ask her how come but for some reason got the feeling that it probably wasn't a very good idea. She could tell because that was when Taylor, Kelsi, and Martha also grew all eerily silent and pretended to be interested in the passing vehicles outside the window, when it was pretty obvious that they really weren't interested in them at all.

"The last time I went anywhere," Gabriella said suddenly after a moments worth of silence, "my mom and dad and I were on our way to visit relatives in Mexico."

Sharpay listened quietly, silently urging for her to continue.

"But my dad missed the departing flight me and my mom took. He'd been working the night before and ended up working late. Plus I guess there was a lot of traffic and he didn't make it to the airport in time. So when he wasn't there when the plane started boarding, my mom and I didn't have a choice but to board it without him."

She paused, gathering her thoughts as she remembered that day nearly six years ago while still keeping her emotionless eyes glued to the road.

"My mom got my dad on the phone while I was with her on the plane, and he said it was fine because he managed to book another flight over on the next plane to Mexico, which was almost three hours later than we'd left, so he had to wait around for a while."

Gabriella shrugged sadly.

"And the next day, when we were with my grandparents in Mexico, we got a call saying there was a crash. A plane crash. The one my dad was on."

She shook her head, as if now trying to rid her brain of the memory.

"I guess several passengers died instantly, my dad being one of them. My mom and I spent about a week after that with our relatives, came back, and haven't gone on any vacations ever since."

Sharpay just sat there for a long few seconds after that. She knew what it was like to lose someone you really care about. Her own real father, for instance. So she could relate. Of course it was when she and Ryan were five, but she could still remember it all too clearly. His case had been a car accident. The reason she remembered it so well at such a young age was because she'd been a_ total_ daddy's girl.

"I'm really sorry." Sharpay told Gabriella quietly. "I know how that feels. My dad died when I was five. I don't remember_ too_ much about him, I just remember how bad it hurt."

"It sucks huh?" Gabriella asked. "But it's OK, I guess. I learned to live with it in the dumb fifth stage of grief a while ago."

"Yeah," Sharpay agreed quietly, and Gabriella said "But I'm really sorry for you too."

"Did your mom re-marry?" Sharpay asked her, recalling how she'd only seen her mom at her house just about forty minutes ago.

"No, and I don't know why either. But we're fine with it being just the two of us..I mean, she's dated a little before but it was never anything serious." Gabriella explained, "What about your mom?"

"Yeah," Sharpay nodded. "Married my step dad Vance five years ago."

"Do you like having a step dad?" Gabriella wondered.

"He's pretty cool. I like him...he and my mom met in Florida, which is why they always insist on taking the whole family back there as often as possible." Sharpay explained.

"How many times have you been there?" Taylor wondered, snapping Sharpay back into reality, as she'd almost forgotten about the three other passengers in the car. She bit her lip nervously. Again with the travelling questions.

"A few."

"Do you have any siblings?" Kelsi asked this time. Geeze, it was as if the game of Truth or Dare had turned solely into a game of Truth and Sharpay was the star of it. She didn't really mind though.

"One brother," the blonde replied in answer to Kelsi's question.

"Older or younger?" she asked then.

"Older," Sharpay said. "By just a few minutes."

"Aww, you're a twin?!" Kelsi asked, and Sharpay nodded. "I've always wanted a twin! I was going to be one but then she died in my mom's womb. But hey, now maybe I've got a chance of having twins when I'm older."

"Yeah, and now we worry that with Kelsi it'll be just like it was with The Unborn!" Martha laughed, and Kelsi glared at her, but said nothing. She hated horror films and her friends always teased her about that now.

"I didn't know you were a twin, Sharpay?" Taylor spoke up, getting back to the point. "What's his name? Does that mean he goes to our school now, too?"

"Yeah," Sharpay said, looking at Gabriella, recalling her conversation with Ryan earlier about him liking her and being in her child psych. class.

"Ryan, he goes to East High now, too."

"_He's_ your brother?!" Gabriella finally spoke again. _Oh God. Here it comes_, thought Sharpay.

"Mhm."

"Blonde hair, blue eyes, always wears a hat?"

"That's him."

"Oh, then I know him! I didn't know you two were related! He's in one of my classes." Gabriella recalled, her voice full of surprise and wonder.

"Which class?" Martha wondered. "Is he cute?" she then turned to Sharpay. "Sorry, no trying to be awkward or anything, just wondering," she smiled. Sharpay shrugged.

"It's okay," she mumbled, refusing to look at any of them, but desperatley wanting to know Gabriella's answer.

"Child psychology," she said. "And yeah... he's pretty cute," she answered Martha's second question nonchalantly with a shrug, making Sharpay let out a long breath she hadn't been aware she'd been holding in.

_Well, at least she didn't go off about how insanely hot he was or anything. Ew._

"Do him and Sharpay look anything alike?" Taylor wondered now, glancing back at Sharpay, knowing that if she'd asked her if her and her brother looked alike, she'd probably say no, because siblings never claimed to look anything like each other. (Usually)

"Well being different genders, not that much. But now that you mention it- I guess I _can_kind of see a resemblance." Gabriella smiled, as if Sharpay wasn't even in the car.

"How so?" Sharpay asked slowly.

"I don't know," Gabriella answered. "The hair I guess. The facial structure. You're both uh..... good looking?"

Sharpay tried her best not to grin idiotically at the compliment coming from Gabriella that was halfway meant for her- like earlier when she'd said she was "gorgeous" in a semi-sarcastic-ish way... which again reminded her of that one moment..."Thanks."

"Would you ever date him?" Kelsi asked Gabriella, who had been asked out by several guys in her past when she was old enough to date but had turned every one of them down. Sharpay's face momentarily scrunched up in disgust but it had luckily gone unnoticed by everyone.

"I don't know. I hardly know him, but he's nice and all. It's just...I don't know... now that I know he's Sharpay's brother, it might be kind of weird." Gabriella replied slowly. Taylor, Kelsi, and Martha all turned then to look at Sharpay, probably waiting for her to say something- preferably probably something along the lines of "oh it's no big deal, go with my blessing," but she just couldn't bring herself to say that- something she so did not mean. So even though the three girls were probably secretly hoping that Sharpay would speak up now and say it wouldn't matter if Gabriella went out with Ryan if though they were related, she just stared out the window at all the passing cars on the freeway, pretending not to notice the three pairs of eyes burning holes in her skull, and didn't say a word.

Everyone was silent the rest of the way there.

_So much for Truth or Dare..._

* * *

_A/N: Don't you just love how Sharpay is so Anti-Ryella? xD_

_I'm soooooo soooooo sooooo soooooooooo super-sooooooooooooooooooo beyond sorry for the hecka long wait on this chapter. :( Hopefully the next one will come a lot sooner, and it'll be a little more exciting-ish too. ;P_

_Remember to leave your reviews for me? ^^_

_Thanks everyone& H A P P Y S U M M E R! (sign pointing to less than 3!) _

_-Serena/HeSaidSheSaidx_


	9. Seven: Our Adventure Pt 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own HSM or it's characters in additional to Olive Garden, The Blade Academy in Albuquerque, NM or Capital High School in Santa Fe, NM. In this chapter, however, I own Travis, Jamal, Coco, and Miles.**

* * *

Her

**_Chapter Seven: Our Adventure (Pt. 1)_**

"**_R_**ise and shine, sleepyhead!"

Sharpay slowly opened her eyes at the sound of someone speaking, followed by a laugh, and the feel of someone knocking ever so lightly on her head. Confused as to what was going on, she glanced around warily at her surroundings to conclude that she was in some kind of upholstered room (aka, a car) and was being stared at by a smiley Kelsi Neilson.

"Kelsi?" the blonde asked groggily, blinking away her blurred-from-sleep vision. "How long was I asleep?"

It was then that she noticed Taylor still in the front passenger seat, because the two exchanged glances as if trying to settle in on a certain conclusion.

"Five minutes?" Taylor suggested, still looking at Kelsi, who shrugged and shook her head.

"I was gonna say about three." The light brown haired girl responded with a chuckle.

Sharpay stared at them for a moment. Three minutes? Maybe five? Dang! It had felt like three, maybe five, hours instead. It was weird how a short amount of sleep could sometimes do that to a person.

"Well, were here now. We're in Santa Fe, at the showcase. So, come on." Kelsi said, pushing open the door on her side and climbing out. Sharpay blinked and tiredly unbuckled her seat belt before yawning and opening her own door on her side and stepping clumsily out of the car as well. She glanced ahead and saw that they were parked in front of an Olive Garden restaurant.

"The showcase is at Olive Garden?!" she then asked Kelsi as they circled around the car to meet each other, her voice coated with astonishment.

"No," Kelsi laughed, "it's about a block away at this high school. We couldn't find any open parking spaces or even any open spots along the curb. This was the closest spot we could find."

"Where are Gabriella and Martha?" Sharpay asked then, stretching her arms far up in the air as she did so. She still couldn't believe she'd actually fallen asleep. It wasn't as if the trip in itself had taken that long- just an hour, what was the big deal, and why had she slept for apparently the last few minutes?

"They went inside already to try and find us seats," Kelsi explained as they started walking across the parking lot and started down the sidewalk with Taylor trailing behind them. "Told us to get you up."

"Oh. Sorry for falling asleep, I oddly wasn't even tired." Sharpay mumbled in embarrassment.

"It's okay, I fell asleep too around fifteen minutes ago and just woke up as we were getting here." Kelsi shrugged, which did in fact make Sharpay feel a little better and less stupid.

"So what time is it?" she asked, knowing they'd been running pretty late. Kelsi pulled out her cellphone (which reminded Sharpay- she had to text her mom and tell her they arrived here safely, as promised) and checked.

"6:47." The blue-green eyed girl responded. Sharpay nodded, "and it started at 6:30?"

"Yep."

They walked the rest of the way across the lot in silence- the only sounds heard being Sharpay and Taylor's clicking heels (Kelsi was wearing flip flops), and several cars passing by on the street beside them.

Kelsi was the first one to reach the turquoise double doors on the left side of the (large) nice building labeled "Capital High School" where the event was being held a few minutes later since they'd practically jogged all the way there from the Olive Garden. She pulled a door open, quickly ushering in Taylor and Sharpay in a "go! Go! Go!" fashion.

"Do you remember which way is the auditorium?" Kelsi asked Taylor as they started down the empty corridor. She remembered coming in through this entrance last year when they'd came to this same event around the same time of the year, as she remembered it being easier to get to the auditorium from here than through the main school entrance, but she didn't remember exactly where the auditorium was.

"Yeah we keep walking, then turn left, and it should be right there when we round the corner." Taylor told her. As they neared the corner they were supposed to be turning at, they heard angry voices which became more and more clear the closer they got.

"Well can't we just buy them now?" Gabriella was eagerly asking a short, tan- almost orange man with spiky brown hair dressed in a white tee shirt, jeans, and a black blazer who seemed to be guarding the auditorium doors behind him. A woman with cropped, short bleached blonde hair stood next to him with crossed arms- a good five or six inches taller than him in her shiny red peep toe heels.

"I already told you miss, they're all sold out."

"What's wrong?" Taylor asked Gabriella, she whirled around quickly, startled by her sudden appearance.

Sharpay eyed the table a few feet away with a couple of water bottles, flyers, and a cash box on top that had a sign labeled "TICKETS" in turquoise glitter hanging off the front of it. She could probably guess what the problem here was.

"_Apparently_, we need tickets to get in, which our coaches never informed us of, and _apparently_ we can't buy any now, because _apparently_, they're sold out!" The furious brunette explained snappily to her best friend. Taylor let out an exasperated sigh as Kelsi exclaimed "WHAT!?"

Bingo.

"You have _got_ to be _kidding _me!" Taylor exclaimed. "I don't remember needing tickets last year?!"

"Did you come by yourselves or with a team?" the spiky haired guy asked her.

"We came with a school last year, when our coaches organized it and were just a little less lazy." The curly haired girl replied. Spiky nodded.

"That's probably why then. Teams get in at a discounted price and are already pre-reserved to get in long beforehand. How come you didn't come with your school this year?"

"Because now they're freaking lazy asses!" Taylor shreiked. "Why do I even need to explain this to you? Come on just let us in!"

"'Fraid I can't." Spiky said with a sucks-to-be-you kind of shrug, indicating that he really didn't care, and the giraffe next to him agreed with a nod and a snooty "You all should've bought your tickets beforehand."

Sharpay stared at her, dumbstruck, her voice was so high pitched and nasaly it could probably shatter glass. (Think Tracy Van-whatsherface from Hannah Montana only 1212478954798435798375897354 times worse.)

"How were we supposed to? We live an hour away!" Martha snapped pointedly at her.

"We're from an hour away too, you could've ordered online at our website. We coordinated this event," Spiky explained, picking up a lime green pamphlet from the table and handing it to Martha.

"We're with the Blade Acadamy down in Albuquerque," he said- making himself sound all professional, as if this was some kind of business deal. Gabriella's ears perked up at this, her mood instantly reversed for a split second as she grabbed the pamphlet from Martha's hands.

"We're from Albuquerque, too!" She said, her voice and facial expression exhibiting less anger than before. "And I've been meaning to talk to someone from-"

"Gabriella," Taylor said, glaring at her friend with cold eyes. She knew exactly what she was doing. "Don't. Not the time."

The latina went silent. Sharpay stared at her sorrowfully for a moment. She looked like a kicked puppy that just got scolded from it's master.

"Listen, buddy," Taylor then told Spiky assertively. "We didn't drive an hour all the way here after getting into a very messy flour fight in attempts to bake chocolate chip cookies and then have to rush to get the kitchen cleaned up before my friend's mother here totally blew a fuse, for nothing. So, to do us both a favor- so _I'll_ stop wasting _your_ time, and so you'll give me what I want...I'm going to ask nicely one more time for you to please let us in, and you're going to say no and that there's absolutely nothing you can do about it with a smug smile when clearly, you, I, and everyone else standing around us all know very well that there is indeed something you can do about it. So then I'm going to ask you again to let us in and even offer to pay you, even if there's no empty seats and it means we're going to have to stand up in the very back for two and a half hours, at which point, you will agree with a reasonable nod, tell us you're happy to negotiate, and then you're going to let us in. Clear?"

Sharpay, Kelsi, and Martha all stared at Taylor in shock with their mouth's hanging partially open. Kelsi and Martha- because they'd never really seen this side of their long-term friend before. All confident and very snappy and assertive and whatnot. At least not in a while. Not since she was giving her speech to the school to vote for her for ASB Student Body President last year to be granted the position this year.

And Sharpay- because even in the short time she'd known Taylor, she still hadn't imagined her to act so.....feisty?

Gabriella was still too disappointed to show any reaction.

Spiky and Giraffe on the other hand, glanced in surprise at each other for a moment with WTF looks on their faces before after a while those WTF looks transformed into knowing wicked grins, as if they were speaking with their beady little eyeballs to each other and came to a decision at once.

"Sure, since you asked so kindly." Spiky replied to Taylor finally.

"Yes," Giraffe agreed. "Come along now girls, this way- since it's so full in there, there's another entrance I'm gonna have you go through." She said as she started down the hall back in the direction the girls had come from to get here, expecting them to follow- which they did. Spiky waved after them, the grin still glued to his orange little face.

"Alright, now I'd like you all to meet two very good friends of mine," Giraffe told the group of five in that nasally voice of hers as they approached a wooden door. She twisted the knob and pushed the door open, where two husky men wearing black polos tucked into black jeans and heavy work boots were sitting in office chairs in the tiny cramped room, each playing on.................................................................................................................................................................................................Play Station Portables?!

"Oh! What now Travis?! I just hit level 17! You're still stuck on level 3! YOU SUCK" The slightly chubbier, African American man told his bald, goateed and sweaty American companion.

"Shut the hell up Jamal, or I'll tell your wife how you spent this past Christmas when you told her you were away on a business trip." "Travis" threatened. "Jamal" stared at him with wide eyes.

"You wouldn't." He snarled. Sweaty laughed, but it came out more as a dry cackle.

"You bet I would."

"Okay, well, for the record, she was the one dumb enough to believe being a school security guard would even require business trips. But you still better not tell her we rented hookers, or I swear to God I will-"

"Gentlemen?" Giraffe questioned, finally seeming to catch their attention. The forty year old men stared up at her blankly for a moment before glancing at the five teenagers behind her, all with disgusted looks on their faces, before looking back up at Giraffe and smiling- showing off all their crooked yellow teeth.

"What can we do for you, Coco?"

"Actually, Miles and I were wondering if you could show these ladies to our _special entrance_." Coco, AKA Nasally Giraffe Woman told them. Travis and Jamal exchanged glances before nodding, shutting off their game systems, standing up, and crossing their arms over their chests and stood side by side in attempts to make themselves look tough.

"No problem, Coke." Jamal nodded, eyeing up Kelsi, who hid nervously behind Taylor- who was in the front of the line of all her friends and right behind this Coco woman. Taylor gasped suddenly as Jamal took a step towards her, and jumped backwards- slamming into Kelsi, which caused her to stumble and fall backwards on Martha, making her crash into Gabriella, who almost fell over backwards on Sharpay, who luckily caught her by her under arms quickly before she could be totally wiped out. It was as if they were playing human dominoes with the trust/falling game exercise included at the end.

"Thanks." Gabriella mumbled to Sharpay as she regained composure. Sharpay just nodded, confused and frightened as to what the hell Jamal and Travis were going to do to them. Suddenly it didn't seem as though they were going to let them in to the auditorium anytime soon.

"Oh honey, there's no need to be afraid of Jamal. Just do exactly as he says and no one gets hurt." Coco said in a soothing voice to Taylor. As if her half threatening words were supposed to be comforting or something. Taylor glared at Coco, wanting to scream the words "HEINOUS BITCH" at her but fighting hard to hold back from doing so.

Then suddenly, the heavy African American man firmly grabbed a hold of Taylor's arm, and then Kelsi's.

"HEY-" Kelsi cried out, startled, as Travis then went for Martha and Gabriella's arms. Sharpay watched the scene in partial shock and partial terror, but before she could make a run for it to go get some kind of help, seeing as she was the only one not being wrangled by a huge forty year old man, she felt her own arm being clasped on tightly to by stupid Nasally Giraffe Woman Coco herself.

"What the hell- let go of me, lady!" The now pissed off blonde exclaimed, yanking her arm forcefully free from the tall woman's grasp, who then let out a growl and just grabbed on to her again by the elbow. Before Sharpay could pull away from her again and give her a nice bitch slap across the face, she somehow managed to get around her and grab on to her other elbow as well. Coco pushed Sharpay in front of her, leading her forward by the arms, her long french manicured fingernails digging into a pinching her tanned skin.

Sharpay cried out in pain and glanced desperately over at Gabriella, who was attempting to yank free of sweaty Travis's tight hold on her, but wasn't having much luck. So she looked over at Martha, Taylor, and Kelsi next...who were sadly doing the exact same thing. All without luck. The saddest part of all being that Travis and Jamal didn't seem to be struggling in the slightest, but were just casually pretty much dragging the four girls through the high school hallway as they struggled to get away. Hell, they may as well of been whistling this whole time.

Coco, on the other hand, seemed to be having a lot of trouble with Sharpay, because the two woman fought each other the whole way down the long corridor- each screaming nasty words at each other, but neither lightening up at all. Sharpay right now for the moment didn't even care that she was suddenly using such language in front of three Mormons. But they didn't really care either, since they were to busy trying to rip free of the security guards themselves.

"I _-grunt-_ said stop struggling _-growl-_ you _-gasp-_ puny little _-grunt-_bitch!" Coco hissed venomously at the small blonde she was fighting for control with.

"Oh, I'm the bitch!" Yelled Sharpay sarcastically. "Wherever the _-grunt-_ hell you're taking me, I _-grunt-_ can walk there _-grunt-_ myself!"

But Coco didn't listen, she just continued to shove Sharpay violently down the hall. They were several feet behind Travis and Jamal who were easily dragging the rest of the girls away.

"Get your_ -grunt-_ damn hands off of _-grunt-_ me you damn _-grunt-_ giraffe!"

"Why don't _-grunt-_ you just cooperate -_grunt-_ you fucking _-grunt-_ brat!"

Sharpay looked up to see, about ten feet up ahead, the door at the end of the hallway being kicked open by Travis's foot whose hands were full with Martha and Gabriella. She watched with wide brown eyes as the middle aged man then carelessly shoved the two girls in his arms out the door and saw them land next to each other on the hard pavement outside. Jamal did the same through the other double-door with Kelsi and Taylor.

Not long after did she feel herself being shoved outside by her own captivating bitch. Only, she was not shoved upon the ground, but instead upon Gabriella, who was still sprawled on the ground. Their faces came so close together when Sharpay fell on top of her that she could feel her warm minty breath on her face as she gasped for air, and smell her sweet orange-y lipgloss.

But to angry with defeat against stupid Coco to indulge in this moment, Sharpay only allowed herself to lock eyes with Gabriella for a split second before lifting herself off of her and throwing herself against the turqoise door that was now closed and -she tried the door handle- locked. Damn Sweaty.

"This isn't over yet, psycho!" She called in through the door at Coco, who was standing on the other side of it on the inside, laughing at her with satisfaction through the glass part of the door. "I'm gonna call my step-father's lawyer!" Sharpay promised, banging her fists on it. Coco just shrugged.

"Sorry, honey." She mouthed through the glass with a smirk, obviously not sorry at all. "Maybe next time you'll buy a ticket when they're still available."

Sharpay balled her fists at her sides and glared through the glass after Coco as she turned and walked away from the door and back down the hallway with Travis and Jamal, her chest heaving as she panted for breath. A few seconds later, she finally caught her breath somewhat and whirled back around to her new friends, whipping out her cell phone from her pocket as she'd left her purse in the car.

"Don't worry guys my step dad knows people I can ruin her it won't be hard for him to find Coco from the Blade Academy I have him on speed dial-" she started, already pushing a number to get immediately connected with Vance, not speaking with any pauses.

"Whoa, whoa, Sharpay- just slow down and take a breather!" Martha insisted, standing up from her tossed around position on the ground. She took Sharpay's cell from her ear and pressed the "end" button before handing it back to her. Sharpay was silent for a while after that, glancing around at the faces of the people in front of her before slowly nodding.

"...You're right, Martha. I should probably slow down..." she let out a long sigh and slid exhaustedly down the length of the building doors behind her. "I'm sorry for getting so riled up," she mumbled apologetically after a while to the group. "Some things you just can't help when a rude giraffe woman with an annoying squeaky voice is digging her nails into you and shoving you down an empty corridor." She said, inspecting the nail marks on her arms and rubbing them tenderly with her hands. That woman was a vicious animal. Then again.....she could sometimes be too.

"Don't apologize." Kelsi whispered quietly, sitting in criss-cross form on the ground.

"Yeah," Taylor agreed, copying her position. "It's not your fault we got thrown out. And we were all acting that way too- the only difference was, that Coco woman was having a harder time with you than those security guards were with us since they were probably stronger than her and could hold us down better."

"Or Sharpay's just a lot more feisty than the rest of us." Gabriella joked lightly with a sad smile, scooting up next to Sharpay and leaning against the school building like she was. She pulled her knees up to her chest, rested her head on them, and sighed.

"Well, then can I at least apologize for landing on top of you?" Sharpay asked Gabriella, looking at her. Gabriella shrugged slowly.

"It's fine. No harm done."

"What about when you hit the ground?" Sharpay asked with a scoff. "Gosh, I saw the way those guys threw you all on the ground. Must've been a hard fall?"

"Kind of." Gabriella said angrily. "I think I scraped my back. It stings."

"I'm sorry."

"Seriously. My arm hurts like a skank with a Saturday morning hangover." Taylor grumbled, inspecting a long scrape near the right side of her elbow. "I could probably sue if they'd made me break a bone or something."

Sharpay looked over the scrape.

_Ouch! _She thought, just looking at it hurt. Kelsi and Martha said they luckily didn't have any injuries.

"I can't believe we got thrown out!" Martha exclaimed. "It's just not fair! We drove all this way for nothing!"

"And it's all Andie and Kira's fault." Kelsi moaned. "They didn't tell us we were going to have to purchase tickets this year."

"Seriously, those two need to quit and go back to wherever it is they came from already." Taylor agreed. Gabriella didn't comment, as she had her face buried in her arms which were folded across her knees now.

The five girls sat there sulking in silence for a while, each one of them beyond disappointed and unhappy about the way this day had played out. First, they'd already been late arriving here in stupid Santa Fe. Next, they got literally and physically thrown out by fat men and a fake blonde bitch. And to make matters worse, the sun had already set a long time ago around six and it was a little bit windy. Even New Mexico could be chilly sometimes- especially since it was just barely the beginning of February. Sharpay guessed it to be about 45 degrees out right now. After several more minutes of silence, she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket where she'd placed it back after Martha had handed it back to her.

Taking it out, she glanced briefly at the caller ID for a moment before closing her eyes dreadfully. But she knew she couldn't ignore the call, she had to answer no matter how bad she wanted to let it go to voice mail because the person would just keep calling until she answered.

"Hello?" she answered carefully. Gabriella snapped her head up and looked over at her to see why she was disturbing the silence, as did Kelsi, Taylor, and Martha.

"_Sharpay? Where are you? Why didn't you call like you promised?"_

"I'm sorry, I forgot...but I'm fine." Sharpay half-lied, not meeting the eyes of any of her companions. "We're at Capital High in Santa Fe."

"_So you made it safely?" _Derby asked, her voice coated with both relief and then anger._"I can't believe you forgot to call me Sharpay_!"

"I know, I'm really sorry. I'll make it up to you when I get home."

"_And how exactly are you planning on doing that? When are you going to be home_?"

Sharpay bit her lip nervously. If things had gone as planned today, she easily could've and would've said around 10:30. But right now she honestly didn't even know anymore.

"I'm not sure, I'll text you as soon as I know anything."

"_What if you _forget_ again_?" Derby asked in mock-tone.

Sharpay sighed. "I won't, I promise."

"_Fine, but if you don't text me within half an hour you're grounded, young lady._"

"I'll text you, geeze!"

"_Good. Look honey, I'm sorry for being so hard on you but you're out by yourself on a Saturday night an hour away. Anything can happen, so be careful._"

Sharpay fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Okay mom. Bye, I love you," she said quickly, ready to hang up.

"_Love you too_."

She hung up with a sigh.

"Are you in trouble?" Gabriella asked as Sharpay ran a shaky hand through her hair.

"Not exactly. Not yet anyways, I've just been warned." Sharpay told her. "She wanted me to call when I got here but I forgot, and I need to text her in half an hour to let her know when we'll be back, or I'm grounded."

"Strict mom?" Kelsi question, Sharpay shrugged.

"Just recently.

"I know what that's like." Gabriella muttered.

"Can I see your phone?" Taylor asked Sharpay, who handed her mobile over to her.

"Sure, why?"

"Just wanna see your pictures." Taylor replied, scrolling through the device. It's not like there was anything better to do while they sat outside a high school at 7:06 PM trying to decide what now to do with their shit-out-of-luck-lives.

"Speaking of which," Martha said, getting back to the subject. "When are we gonna head back? There's clearly no point in sticking around, now that we've been escorted out of our destination." she said bitterly. Gabriella sighed, beating her head with her fists.

"I don't know. I hate to think that we really did drive all the way up here for nothing. I said we'd be back by 10:30 right? Then we've still got a few more hours to kill. Maybe we should see a movie or something."

"We could easily do that back home." Martha huffed.

"Well, I don't know what else to do!" Gabriella said, giving up. "Let's just go home then and pretend like this horrible day never happened!"

Sharpay stared ahead in disappointment. See, she hadn't really care all that much about the showcase itself to begin with. Sure, it would've been kind of cool to watch a dance show- like a mini taste of America's Best Dance Crew live, but her main purpose of coming along on this trip was to hopefully get to know Gabriella, Martha, Taylor, and Kelsi more. So they could do something else, couldn't they? Why not make the most of their time in this parent-free zone? They were all on their own in Santa Fe, and hour away from home. Why waste this chance to just..._do _something? Anything? They couldn't just head back already and give up on any chances of fun. Like Gabriella said- "let's just pretend this horrible day never happened!" well, fine. They could do that, but instead of forgetting about how bad it'd been going so far- how about changing it for the better and turning it good? So they could later remember the good and forget the bad. When worse comes to worst, why not make the best of it? Why not roll with it? Why not change it? Why not come up with a plan B? Why waste this perfect opportunity to liven up the town, by themselves, on Saturday night, and do whatever they wanted?

"Haha, where was this picture taken?" Taylor's voice cut into Sharpay's thoughts. She looked at her cell phone screen that Taylor was showing her and smiled. It was a picture of her and her good friend Lexi from back where she lived in Indiana. They were wearing these funky bird masks over their eyes and shimmering black dresses. Lexi was blowing a kiss at the camera while Sharpay had her arm wrapped tightly around her friend's neck and had her tongue hanging out of her mouth and was making a "rock on!" sign with her fingers.

"That was at mine and my brother's sweet sixteen party last July. We went with a masquerade theme."

"Whose this?" Taylor then asked, tapping the spot on the screen where Lexi was.

"That's my friend Lexi," Sharpay explained, smiling sadly at the picture. Taylor stared at her for a moment.

"You miss her." She stated knowingly. Sharpay nodded.

"Of course, she was my best friend."

"Do you still talk to her?" Taylor wondered. Sharpay shrugged.

"Sometimes online. She doesn't have my new number yet."

"Oh."

Looking at the picture made Sharpay remember even more all the good times she had with her old friends back in her hometown. She'd grown up there- she'd been happy, with lots of friends and even several boyfriends throughout her past; so naturally, there'd be plenty of good memories. But now, here she was at this moment, sulking outside a school with a _new_ group of friends...who she could _also _make memories with. Right? Of course. And while she was sure she'd never forget this night so far, there was still nothing all that great about it to remember. But they could change that. They should be able to change that.

They were_ going_ to change that.

"You know what guys?" Sharpay spoke up, climbing to her feet. The four girls looked up at her from their positions on the ground, unhappiness written clear all over their faces.

"I'll tell you what we're gonna do. First, we're gonna wipe the displeased looks off our faces." She began enthusiastically. They just stared at her blankly. Sharpay sighed.

"Do you guys want worry lines?" She asked pointedly. They looked quickly at each other before letting their facial features relax somewhat.

"Didn't think so. Second," she said, placing her hands on her hips, "we're gonna forget everything that's happened in between the hours of five PM to this very second. Go on, just close your eyes, and erase it. Make it finished. Over. Gone. No more."

They sighed and closed their eyes before opening them again a few seconds later.

"Good. Now third, since we've forgotten everything bad to have happened so far, we're gonna start over fresh, okay? From this moment on, I'll tell you what we're gonna go, we're gonna have _fun_."

"How?" Kelsi asked uncertainly, slowly rising to her feet.

"However we want to. Think about it, we have until 9:30 when we have to leave Santa Fe, to do _whatever!_ No adults. Therefore, no obstacles blocking us from doing whatever we want to do."

"We don't know what to do." Martha said stiffly. Sharpay smiled.

"Well, I'm sure we can think of something. Come on, you've all seen the movies, right? All those movies where the character's start off having a horrible time but it all comes together at the end? I'm talking _The Breakfast Club_..._Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist_...and all those other movies that take place one night." The blonde said optimistically. "..._Sleepover...__Ferris Bueller's Day Off_, you know what I'm talking about?"

Taylor chuckled. "Where are you getting at this, Sharpay?" she asked. Sharpay sighed.

"I'm saying, let's pretend it's as if this is a movie," she said. "Pretend there's an outside audience in some kind of outside world sitting at home right now, watching us and waiting for us to do something next before they shut off their blu rays and move on with their lives."

"Um.." Gabriella started.

"Put it this way," Sharpay said. "What would you do, right at this moment, if your life was a comedy film with a happy ending? All those character's in all those movies tend to have an adventure. We need an adventure. So what's our adventure gonna be?"

"Our adventure?" Gabriella repeated in confusion, finally standing up. "I don't know."

"Come on- Martha?" Sharpay asked, turning her attention to her. "What's something you haven't done in a while, but that you really want to?"

"Well..." Martha started. "I guess I haven't gone bowling in a while?"

"Alright then, let's go bowling! Anything else?...Kelsi?"

"How about roller skating?" The curly haired girl suggested.

"Of course! What about you, Taylor?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure exactly. BUT, I think it'd be fun to just walk around places instead of driving."

"I'm not gonna walk the streets in some unknown town an hour away from home on a Saturday night." Gabriella spoke up.

"Come on, nothing bad is gonna happen." Taylor told her. Gabriella shook her head.

"I don't care. Plenty bad has already happened today. Sorry but I'm not about to get mugged and raped tonight by some random psycho roaming the streets. Why take more risks?" she said stubbornly.

"I thought we were _forgetting_all of that." Taylor pointed out. "According to Sharpay."

Everyone looked at Sharpay after that, but no one said a word. After a while of eerie silence, Gabriella sighed and grabbed Sharpay's arm, pulling her away from the group.

"Where are you going?" Kelsi called after them.

"We'll be right back!" Gabriella called back. They circled around to the front of the school until she felt they were far enough away from the other girls.

"Look, I appreciate that you're trying to turn everything around and make things fun tonight," the brunette said. "But what if we try and act all carefree and something else bad happens?"

"I really don't think anything horrible is going to happen if we just go a few places and let loose." Sharpay assured.

"Well fine, but Taylor's idea of walking the streets?" Gabriella shook her head. "No thanks."

"Well since we're in a group, I don't think any random lurker is gonna try anything."

"Come on! Those two security guards and that Coco woman were easily able to get rid of us. What makes you think someone even more dangerous can't?" The Latina pointed out.

"...........Okay I guess I can sort of see your point there," Sharpay said, "but can I ask you something that you won't take the wrong way?"

"What?" Gabriella sighed.

Sharpay swallowed. "Why are you worrying so much?"

"I'm just trying to think of all the possibilities."

"Are you guys done controverting yet?" Martha asked, appearing from around the corner of the school where they were. Gabriella and Sharpay looked at each other for a moment.

"Yeah I guess." Gabriella replied with a defeated shrug, peeling her eyes away from Sharpay's as Kelsi and Taylor also came walking up to them.

"So what's happening?" Kelsi asked after a while. "What are we doing?"

"Well," Sharpay said. "I think that first of all....just to be on the safe side....we should take the car."

She did think it would make things at least a little more fun if they did travel on foot everywhere, but since Gabriella apparently didn't think so, well, she wanted her to feel comfortable so she decided to agree with the more safe opportunity instead.

"Oh, fine." Taylor huffed. Gabriella it seemed, sometimes didn't know how to have any fun. But she couldn't say that, otherwise she'd probably get all mad at her.

"So bowling, skating, or both?" Martha then asked Sharpay, who shrugged.

"It's not all up to me," she said, wondering when she'd suddenly become the coordinator of all events. Sure, she'd been the one to step up and basically say "Screw this shit, let's _do_ something with our lives!" but that didn't mean they needed to make her leader of the night.

"I wanna go skating first." Kelsi said, someone other than Sharpay finally taking charge in deciding what they were to do.

"Okay, but one more question:" Sharpay said, "anyone know where any roller blading rinks are around here?"

Everyone was silent for a while until Taylor broke it.

"We could just ask the people who work at Olive Garden?" she suggested, remembering that Olive Garden was where they were parked.

"Good idea," Kelsi said, "and while we're at it, lets ask them for a free bread stick or something. I'm getting kind hungry," she laughed.

"Me too," Martha chuckled in agreement, taking off down the school parking lot with Kelsi, both of them laughing the whole way with Taylor following closely after them- running as fast as her heels would take her. Sharpay turned to Gabriella.

"You ready?"

"Ready for...what exactly?" the other girl asked. Sharpay smiled.

"Our adventure."

Gabriella pursed her lips together for a moment before finally returning the smile.

"Okay, yeah." She said, giggling and once again taking Sharpay's hand- reminding the blonde of earlier back at her house when she'd done that to lead her up the stairs. She looked at their hands, wanting to believe this was more than just a friendly gesture but knowing that she couldn't and shouldn't.

"Let's go then," Gabriella said, pulling her along the parking lot as the rest of the girls were already way ahead of them. Sharpay trudged along next to her, this being the beginning of their adventure.

_Let's make it a good one_.

* * *

_A/N: Had to break down the "Adventure" sequence in two chapters. Oh and don't be too happy that Nasally Bitch Giraffe Woman Coco disappeared from the story just as quickly as she appeared. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing some.....more of her in future chapters. ;)_

_and I just have to say.. "my arm hurts like a skank with a Saturday morning hangover" has got to be one of the best similies I've ever came up with IMO ahahaha. :P_

_Next one should be up soon._

_&OMG did you guys hear about Michael Jackson? :o :( I can't believe he died. RIP MJ. :(_

_-Serena/HeSaidShesaidx_


End file.
